A 13-year-old boy from Iowa has suffered bullying and public humiliation at the hands of his peers, and neighbors as well as the father of the teen who uploaded a video mocking him online are defending his tormentors.
Levi Null of Melcher-Dallas, Ia. has Asperger syndrome, an autistim spectrum disorder. After a video of him making invountary movements was recorded and posted online by another student, Null is afraid to go to school. The father of the alleged bully, however, recently spoke to local news station 13 Des Moines, and when asked by a reporter if he believed Null had brought the teasing upon himself, answered in the affirmative.
"Yes he does," said Levi Weatherly. "I would say three-fourths of this stuff he brings on himself and and probably a fourth of it is bullying that shouldn't be going on."
Neighbors and parents echoed Weatherly's sentiments, resident Jamie Harrison writing in to the station that after Null allegedly called her nephew a "nasty name," she was proud of him for hitting Null in the mouth. Null's principal even wrote Levi's mother, Dawn Simmons, an email saying that the behavior documented in the video does not count as bullying.
"We try our best to educate our staff, to educate our students to react to the cases, to investigate the cases we have," Principal Josh Ehn told the local station. "But ultimately, it's got to come down to the kids to take ownership for this and to stand up for the kids who can't stand up for themselves."
School Board President Bob Lepley told 13 Des Moines that he had to stand by the principal's decision.
Simmons' son is not the only victim in the situation, however, as she told the station that she herself has become targeted by some parents, adding that it's "been very frustrating," though added that two students have since apologized to her son as they did not realize how their actions had affected him.
13 Des Moines received more than 100 emails from parents in response to the story, many of them accusing Null of purposefully annoying his classmates, though autism specialist Evelyn Horton told the station that such sentiments are far from the truth.
"Individuals with autism don't have the ability to turn it off and turn it on," Horton said. "They may sometimes respond to the environment that they're in and respond more strongly than they may at other times."
