Outrage After Video Showing Pa. Teen With Cerebral Palsy Being Attacked by Student

The mother of Penn Hills, Pa., teen Isaiah Wooding said she cried when she saw video of students at Penn Hills High School bullying and kicking her 16-year-old, who has cerebral palsy.

“How can kids be so cruel?” Margaret Wooding told WPXI. “I don’t want this to happen, not just to my child, but to anyone.”

The video, which was posted to Facebook, shows Isaiah being violently kicked to the ground while students in the background can be heard laughing.

“I was kind of hurt and embarrassed,” Isaiah told WPXI. “I had no idea that this was going on.”

Wooding told the news station she was furious that a student would treat her son in that way.

“I was so mad … this is my child,” she said. “Bullying is not funny.”

Isaiah told the news station that the incident wasn’t the first time that students had picked on him, but Wooding said she is hoping that it will be the last. Wooding said she hopes that the outrage the video has sparked online can be a launching point for students to end bullying.

“We need to speak up. You don’t have to fit in,” she said. “You don’t have to be like everyone else. If something is going wrong, everyone is responsible.”

The Penn Hills School District posted a statement online condemning the students’ actions: “Our full staff and Board are absolutely disgusted and embarrassed by the lack of compassion displayed by students closest to the incident and those who created further upset by recording and posting those terrible images online.”

“Anyone having played a role will be dealt with accordingly, including referrals to local law enforcement,” Superintendent Nancy Hines said. “That is NOT the Penn Hills Way.”

Wooding said she wants the school to make sure that all students are safe and free from bullying.

“When I send my son out to school I want to know that he’s safe when he’s there. And I don’t feel like he’s safe,” she said.

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