A heartbreaking video shows a five-year-old Chinese-American boy clutching his blanket and sobbing while being terrorised by a middle-schooler.
As the young tormentor meted out ethnic slurs at the child, his friends laughed.
“No!” the child cried while running from the older boys outside his home in Loudoun County, Virginia, grabbing a blue blanket, NBC-TV News reported.
“Don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me! Don’t do it. Save me!” the boy pleaded.
The middle-schooler told the child, while cornering him on his front porch on April 5, “Are you having dumplings for dinner?”
The bully taunted the child with other cruel remarks, some of which the outlet censored. The victim’s parents were devastated by the incident involving students from Eagle Ridge Middle School. However, it has prompted hardly any action from school officials. The school said while they are “quite disappointed,” the attack happened off school grounds.
‘I just don’t know why those kids are so cruel’
“Every time I saw that, my heart’s broken – every time,” the boy’s mother told NBC of the footage. “As a mother, to see my son insulted by other, older kids my son’s only 5 years old. I just don’t know why those kids are so cruel to say that to my son.”
“Nobody came to step out and to say, ‘Stop,’ ” she said. “Nobody thinks this is not right. They [were] just laughing. Yeah, nobody stood up.”
The abusive youngster shared the clip online. Upon seeing it, an Eagle Ridge parent rushed to the victim’s house in tears, and showed it to the parents.
The victim’s father said the child was afraid of the boys but did not understand many of the slurs they used to abuse him. At times, the boy was called “King Kong.”
“Should I keep lying and say, ‘Yes, they’re calling you King Kong because you’re strong,’ ” the father said. “Or should I try to explain to him what does that word [mean] and why they’re saying that to you? It’s hard.”
The child’s family migrated from China and bought a house in the US after working hard. They chose the Loudoun County area for its friendly neighbourhoods and upscale schools, the parents of the victim said.
“We thought that this would be a great place,” the father said. “However, though, it ended up like this. So what hurts me most is, then, where else should I be? That hurts me most, not just the words.”
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office told NBC that the incident has been reported to the department. Dan Adams, a spokesman for the school district, said it has offered the victim counseling “and potentially restorative practices” if his family wanted.