When an American dad decided to dig a little deeper into why his son’s bully was mistreating others, he found the young man to be homeless and taught us all a life lesson in empathy.
Aubrey Delinzer, as his name is listed on Facebook, found out his pre-teen son Jordan, was being bullied at school.
Most parents, instinctively, would determine to protect their child – but Delinzer came up with a novel way to do so. He decided to try and understand why the bully does what he does at school.
As we all know, bullying can lead to devastating consequences:
But Delinzer’s actions managed to stop the bullying in its tracks and prevent so much pain for his son and his son’s bully. In a now viral Facebook post, Delinzer shared the story.
The dad said he ‘decided to spend some time with my sons school bully yesterday .. just to dig a little deeper on “why?” .. come to find out he was being bullied for not having clean clothes n clean shoes.. [sic]’.
He asked why the young man, named Tamarion, was being bullied also, and found ‘that his family had fell on hard times and is currently homeless’.
Delinzer added:
It started to make perfect sense .. we have no clue what these children are going thru these days because a lot of us just don’t care ..and this is not a uncommon story for a lot of people .. [sic]
so I spent a lot of my day yesterday by shopping and teaching this young man about self respect. Integrity. Morals. Confidence. And other things that consist of going from a troubled youth to a great man.. [sic]
Indeed, homelessness is an ever-increasing problem and affects children as well as adults. So much so, one school has installed washing machines so their homeless students can come to school with clean clothes.
Luckily, Tamarion had Jordan’s dad in his corner, too.
Delinzer filmed his shopping trip with Tamarion, on Tuesday 18 October, and shared it the day later in a post which has been viewed over 11,000 times at the time of writing.
The video closed with a smiling Tamarion sitting across the table in Delinzer’s home, with Jordan in a ‘meeting’ between the two boys; the bully and the bullied.
It turns out the meeting – which must have been hard on both the boys – went well, and Jordan’s very proud father shared an update the next day of the pair playing video games together, having put their differences aside.
Delinzer shared some final thoughts on the state of our young generations, concluding with a call to arms for all adults to care more about kids and their experiences.
He wrote:
We all come from different backgrounds but we all share the same goal of success …. I see wayyyyyy too much flexing and twerking .. club sh*t n etc.. not enough helping to our black community.. [sic]
these young kings need us man they really do .. I can’t do it by myself .. .. you call yourself “woke” but are you truly enlightened [sic].
The tattoo artist from Houston said he’s been called an ‘angel’ for his efforts to help the young men with peaceful means and empathy, especially at a time when divisiveness seems the method of the day.
Delinzer has managed to leverage the viral video to help Tamarion and his family in a more real and tangible way than new clothes, too, having started a GoFundMe page to help them get back on their feet.
If you’ve been affected by bullying, and want to speak to someone in confidence, contact Bullying UK (Part of Family Lives) on 0808 800 2222. The helpline service is open 9am – 9pm, Monday to Friday and 10am – 3pm Saturday and Sunday.
A former emo kid who talks too much about 8Chan meme culture, the Kardashian Klan, and how her smartphone is probably killing her. Francesca is a Cardiff University Journalism Masters grad who has done words for BBC, ELLE, The Debrief, DAZED, an art magazine you’ve never heard of and a feminist zine which never went to print.