After being kicked off the bus for a second time this school year for bullying, an Ohio father used the punishment as a teaching moment for his 10-year-old daughter.
"I know a lot of you parents are not going to agree with this and that's alright," Matt Cox said in a two-minute video. "I am doing what I think is right to teach my daughter a lesson to stop her from bullying."
So he made her walk 5 miles in the 36-degree cold to school as he drove behind her, WTVG reported.
"A lot of children today feel that the things their parents do for them is a right, not a privilege," Cox said in the video. "Such as parents taking their children to school in the morning or even bus rides to school in the morning."
The video soon went viral and garnered more than 16 million views with critics and supporters of the punishment.
"Parents need to hold their kids accountable," Cox told WTVG. "That was me showing how I hold my kid accountable. I'm not going to be another parent that's just going to brush things under the rug and say kids will be kids."
His daughter Kristen walked portions of the five miles over the three-day suspension. During that time, her father talked to her about how the walk was a result of her actions, WEWS reported. She finished the last two miles Wednesday and told WTVG she has learned from the experience.
Cox later posted an update to the video.
"Lesson learned,” Cox wrote. “(She) still has all her extremities intact is happy and healthy and seems to have a new outlook on bullying as well as a new appreciation for some of the simple things in life she used to take for granted.”
About the Author
