PLANTATION, Fla. – A disturbing video showing a middle school student getting sucker-slapped and beaten on a school bus is sparking outrage and action.
The ambush happened on a Broward County school bus that left Driftwood Middle School in the city of Hollywood. The bus driver pulled over in Davie and called police.
School officials called it “bullying,” but the family of the victim says it’s something far more serious.
“He has to have his nose realigned,” said the family’s immigration attorney, Maribel Piza. “He’s having trouble breathing on one side.”
A GoFundMe page was created for the boy’s medical expenses. Messages started pouring in from viewers, looking to help the student with self-defense classes, which he has now taken up.
The boy arrived from Guatemala and recently started at Driftwood Middle. He is still learning English and said he didn’t understand what the kids were yelling at him on the bus ride home before the ambush happened.
“I looked at the mom and the kid and thought, ‘he’s a sweet boy. A very nice kid. Very mild mannered and respectful,” said John Wai, owner of John Wai Martial Arts in Plantation.
Like many, Wai the viral story and reached out. He and coach David Camacho, a professional fighter himself, offered the student self-defense classes and a safe space to build up community and confidence.
“I could tell that he was very shy,” said Camacho. “Not only with this experience that he had, but also being an immigrant. I grew up in a family background where my mom and majority of my family - we are immigrants - and it’s very hard to come to a country where you don’t speak the language.”
The student, who we are not naming, attended his first martial arts class on Monday and again Tuesday.
Wai and his team said the whole bus should attend, to learn discipline, respect, empathy and build their security and confidence.
“A lot of the time parents bring their kids so they can learn self-defense but what their kids need is a positive environment that’s going to allow them to feel comfortable in their own skin,” said Camacho. “To feel authentic. For the parents of those bullies, bring them into an academy that in the same way will make them feel comfortable in their own skin, make them feel authentic.”