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Hearts have been breaking across the internet over a viral Facebook Live video of Quaden Bayles, a nine-year-old Australian boy with dwarfism who tells his mother he’d rather die than endure the bullying he faces at school.
“I want someone to kill me,” Quaden says in the video, as he sits and cries out of an open car door. “Give me a knife.”
His mother, Yarraka Bayles, can be heard pleading with her followers for advice.
“I’ve got to constantly keep my eye on him because of the suicide attempts,” says Bayles, who appears to be filming off-camera. “This is the impact that bullying has,” she adds.
“And you wonder why kids are killing themselves.”
The six-minute clip has spread far and wide, with more than 23 million views on Facebook and nearly as many reactions. Yarraka Bayles recorded the video on Wednesday, after Quaden’s classmates allegedly drove him to tears again with their bullying.
The Indigenous boy was diagnosed with Achondroplasia dwarfism shortly after he was born, Bayles says. She says the condition has forced him to endure bullying “every single freaking day” for many years.
Quaden’s suffering has moved thousands of people to reach out with messages of support, including several high-profile actors and comedians.
Perhaps no one has stepped up more than Brad Williams, an L.A.-based comedian who grew up with the same condition.
“This kid was bullied to the point of tears just because he’s different,” Williams tweeted on Wednesday, shortly after launching a GoFundMe to send Quaden to Disneyland.
“He’s going to know there are wonderful people out there and that he is loved.”
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