Warning: This post contains language some readers may find offensive. Discretion is advised.
TORONTO – In a YouTube video that’s been seen by more than a million people since being posted four days ago, an emotional Minnesota dad plays racist, bullying videos that he says were sent to his adopted African-American daughter by other teens. But Bradley Knudson and his wife didn’t expect their daughter to use a racial slur herself.
Knudson described New Year’s Eve, when his daughter received Snapchats from twin brothers who were at the house of a “girl that doesn’t like” his daughter.
“You’re a slut. N—-r. You’s a fat-ass b—-,” the young teen boy is seen saying on a video recording taken by Knudson on his own cellphone, after his daughter’s friend alerted her parents to the content of the messages.
“As you can imagine, my wife and I were extremely shocked,” Knudson says in the video. “So I reached out to the police because a week and a half ago some of our very good friends–their son committed suicide at the age of 13 because of bullying. And at that point it just dawned on me: I can’t have this hanging over us and my daughter thinking the worst and something could happen.”
Knudson said police went to the school, talked to the kids involved, and connected him with the parents of the twin boys. Watch the video to hear voicemails Knudson says he kept of their father reacting with indifference to the bullying, as well as racial and homophobic slurs directed at Knudson. The emotional father admitted using some “choice words” of his own in their conversation, then identified the boys’ father as Deron Puro. Puro reportedly lost his job as an independent contractor as a result of the incident, according to Fox 9.
Knudson closed the video with his reason for posting: “I just had to get this off my chest. I just don’t know what to do other than I love my daughter and I don’t want her to end up committing suicide because of frickin’ morons like this god damn a**hole. Sorry.”
In a Thursday post on the original YouTube video, Knudson had an update: He thanked the hundreds of commenters for their support, but said his daughter didn’t take the issue as seriously as he and his wife, and was herself guilty of using “the n-word” in her own Snapchat videos, “thinking that this was a game and it was funny.”
“Regardless of your skin color I and my wife do not tolerate this word our daughter is going to be reprimanded in an appropriate manner. I am extremely saddened and disappointed because of this video she has discredited the message that we wanted to convey.
“I hope that this does not stop our efforts to highlight the issues that still remain regarding bullying and the effects it has on children. It is still truly an epidemic and social media has allowed us to bully individuals 24 hours a day seven days a week no matter where that person lives. … Again I want to thank everyone for their support getting this message out.”
The Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools said it was investigating the issue, and that it has staff and resources to “try to prevent bullying and work with students and families to resolve conflicts.”
A Global News request was not immediately answered by Knudson. BuzzFeed News reported the family “will not be doing any more interviews after new Snapchats show that Deidra also responded to the bullying with racial slurs.” Fox 9 reported Puro’s Facebook page has been removed and his number appears to have been disconnected.
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