A devastated mother has shared heartbreaking footage of her distraught son in tears after children bullied him at school over his dwarfism.
Nine-year-old Quaden Bayles, who raises awareness about his condition achondroplasia in his home country of Australia, was filmed on camera getting visibly upset after being picked on at school.
His mother Yarraka posted the video online, in a bid to highlight the effects of bullying. She said she did not know what to do and called on parents to educate their children about disabilities.
Thousands of people have expressed support for Quaden, who lives in Queensland, and told him to be proud of who he is. The NRL Indigenous All-Stars rugby team uploaded a video message for Quaden and asked if he would like to lead the team out at their next match.
The clip, uploaded to Facebook, shows the boy in distress and crying in what appears to be his family’s car.
Filled with hurt and anger, he is heard saying: "I want to kill myself".
His mum, behind the camera, then says: “This is the effect bullying has. This is what bullying does.
"Can you please educate your children, your families, your friends?
“I seriously don’t know what else to do”.
One social media user said: “This broke my heart when I watched this. Quaden is a gorgeous boy and has a gorgeous family, he does not deserve this, and neither does his beautiful family.”
Another added: “I hope the love that is being shown [in the comments] helps him to gain confidence - he is such a little darling and should feel proud to be who he is,"
The boy's family released a statement thanking people "for the overwhelming show of love and support from so many people from all around the world" after the footage was published.
"Due to the large volume of messages, we are unable to respond to everyone at this time as we need time to process as a family and would like to ask that media respect the family’s wishes, they are not taking calls and will be speaking to First Nations Media only at this time," it said.
"Again thank you everyone, Quaden’s feeling the love and now he needs a good rest.
"We are meeting with the appropriate people in power to make changes and make a stand against bullying."
The NRL Indigenous All-Stars rugby team were among those who showed support to the boy.
“Just make sure you’re thinking the right things, bud, because we want you around - we want you to lead us out on the weekend,” player Latrell Mitchell said.
Quaden, who comes from a proud indigenous family, is the face of Stand Tall 4 Dwarfism
His mother set up the campaign group to fight bullying and raise awareness.
If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please contact the Samaritans on 116123 (free) or email jo@samaritans.org.
