Holt Superintendent Speaks Out After Video of School Bully Goes Viral

A video showing a Holt Junior High School student harassing another student, using expletives and threatening to "beat the [radio edit] crap out of you," went viral, after the mother of the victim posted it on Facebook.  The video was recorded by another student.

WLNS-TV spoke with Holt Superintendent David Hornak about the video, the situation and bullying -- something several Holt students and parents say is a real and growing problem.

The incident happened Thursday, the mother of the victim wrote in a comment on my Facebook page after I shared the video, which was posted Saturday, that evening.  On my post, I called out Holt teachers, staff and parents to "get on this."

[UPDATE: The original video post has now been removed.]

My share is one of more than 5,000, and now the video has been seen more than 450,000 times.  The mother of the victim says that in the past few days she's received support from all over the country and even the world.

While some question whether posting a video of the incident is an appropriate way to handle the situation, the mother of the victim has explained that other courses of action she's taken have, so far, proven ineffective, including speaking to the school, speaking to the bully's parent and even to the Ingham County Sheriff's Department.

Meanwhile, Superintendent Hornak told WLNS "We need everyone to step in, speak up and get help when they see acts of bullying."  It's unclear Hornak's position on publicizing the video and he can't say much because of student privacy laws, but WLNS says the district is investigating.

Here's a different student-produced video -- an ANTI-bullying video, and it does a great job of putting the viewer in the victim's shoes, and putting the call to action for would-be bystanders out: it's time to Take A Stand.