Boy With Cerebral Palsy Made to be 'Bridge' in Muddy Creek

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In one video displayed with this article, Corbett, a high school freshman with cerebral palsy, is seen standing in the middle of shallow, murky water while more than a dozen kids stare down at him from the top of a small hill. He lies down on his stomach, keeping his palms flat in the mud to steady himself as the current rushes past him.

Then, a moment later, a girl leaps from the bank, steps on Corbett’s back as if it were a springboard, and launches herself to the other side — turning Corbett into a human bridge.

In another video, the teenagers are laughing hysterically. They yell at Corbett to get back in the water after he stands up. He doesn’t want to.

“Do it, you f------ b----!” one classmate screams, and Corbett did.

Corbett’s mother, Terri McEachern, said three students walked on her son.

She has not slept well since this happened to him last Wednesday. One of the videos has spread across Canada and much of the world, evoking shock and calls to stand up more strongly against bullying. A local boxer organized a “Stand for Brett Corbett” rally outside Glace Bay High School to “show Brett he is never alone.” Numerous messages of support have poured in for the 14-year-old...

“Never in my LIFE have I ever been more disgusted,” the friend, Brandon Jolie, wrote. “Everyone who knows this boy knows he has a disability. How fricken hard is it to show some compassion??"

The responses to Jolie’s post poured in: “How insulting for this young man. A total lack of respect for those with a disability,” one said.

“They should be ashamed of themselves,” said another.

“This is one of the most disgusting things I have ever seen,” another woman said.

Never in my LIFE have I ever been more disgusted. The young boy in this video is my friends son, he has cerebral palsy. This is Glace Bay High School. Parents; you failed this generation. The amount of teenagers that stood around and watched this happen, even took videos of it. I hope you watch this video, recognize your kid and feel the shame. To the little girl that stepped on him; you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself. Everyone who knows this boy knows he has a disability. How fricken hard is it to show some compassion?? To stand by and not only allow it to happen but to take a video as if it's a joke! It's 2018, show some respect for eachother and empower eachother rather than claw other people down to build yourself up. I think we need to take this situation and make change out of it. We need to look at our children and the lessons we are teaching, we need to play a more active role in their social life. Stuff like this happens because we don't know what our kids are doing at school or with their friends. This needs to CHANGE.

McEachern said some of the students involved were suspended for a single day — a response she has found terribly inadequate.

She wasn’t the only one. About 20 students walked out of classes on Friday to protest what they described as the school’s failure to take a firmer stand, the Cape Breton Post reported.

“Honestly, it’s sickening,” a 17-year-old junior told the paper. “It’s a little upsetting to see nothing done about it.”...

Jolie said he has received comments from all over the world.

People had their own stories to tell of friends or relatives who had been bullied. Mary Lou Levisky, 76, remembered her brother, who had cerebral palsy, and her “recollections of children laughing in the street at him, constant comments from adults of what is wrong and parents who would not allow their daughters to come over and play at my house as they were afraid of my brother.

“I was horrified to learn via this incident that this behaviour still exists today. Congratulations to Brett and his many supporters for not taking it anymore. Seared in my brain are several incidents: my brother coming home from school with a sign in chalk on the back of his jacket, ‘I am an idiot, punch me’ placed there by male classmates.'”