Deron Pura, formerly an independent contractor at a financial firm in Minnesota, lost his job just two days after a video featuring his cruel, racist comments was posted on YouTube. His employer informed Fox9 on Wednesday that Puro is no longer employed at that company.
Puro’s two twin boys, who attend Prior Lake High School, allegedly sent the malicious SnapChat messages to Brad Knudson’s daughter Dierdra. Knudson said Dierdra’s friend, who was with her at the time, brought the messages to his attention. He said the messages contained the N-word and said his daughter was fat.
“We have a very beautiful African-American daughter that we were very fortunate enough to adopt 11 years ago,” Knudson said in the YouTube video that talks about the voicemail, Fox9 reports. “We’ve dealt with a little bit of racism, you know, stares, things like that when she calls us mom or dad, but she didn’t notice so we just blew it off because it was directed towards us.”
The alleged cyberbullying became national news when Knudson, making an emotional plea on the video in an effort to force his daughter’s bullies to “own” their comments, The Washington Post reports.
Knudson’s video has been viewed more than four million times, and in it he explains that he and his wife adopted Dierdra 11 years ago. Then on New Year’s Eve, Dierdra and a friend were at her house sending snaps to other friends. That’s when Dierdra began receiving abusive messages.
It was after the third abusive snap that Dierdra’s friend called and told Knudson and his wife. Knudson recorded what he said was the fourth snap from the teen boys and played it on his YouTube video.
“You’re a s—,” one boy said, and added the n-word.
“You’s a fat a-b—, yes you are,” the other brother said.
“As you can imagine, my wife and I were extremely shocked,” Knudson said, per the video. He also said he tried to reach the boys’ parents but they didn’t respond to his phone calls. Finally, he decided to go to the police.
After the police spoke to the boys at school, Knudson talked to Puro over the phone. Puro denied that his boys had done anything wrong. Then he called again later and left a message, Knudson said. He played the message in the video.
“Yeah, Brad, tides have turned, huh. I guess you’re a [n-word] lover,” the voice-mail said.
Knudson said he took his complaint to YouTube as a last resort.
“It just dawned on me that I can’t have this hanging over us on my daughter thinking the worst and something could happen,” Knudson said in the video. “I just want him to own it … and his twins that go to high school as a freshman, they can own it, too.”
School officials have also taken note of this incident.
Jeff Holmberg, Prior Lake Assistant Superintendent, said they have reached out to both families and are investigating the incident.
“We don’t tolerate that so we are going to be very specific about it and diligent about our efforts to understand the situation,” Holmberg said.
There has been a string of suicides connected to bullying across the U.S. in the last several years, Bullying Statistics notes, adding that the statistics surrounding bullying and suicide are shocking.
What do the statistics say?
• Among young people, suicide is the third leading cause of death, resulting in about 4,400 deaths per year, the CDC reports. For every suicide among young people, there are at least 100 suicide attempts. More than 14 percent of high school students have considered suicide, and nearly seven percent try it.
• Victims of bullying are two to nine times more likely to consider suicide than non-victims, according to studies by Yale University.
• At least half of all suicides among young people are related to bullying, a study conducted in Britain found.
• Girls between the ages of 10 to 14 may be at much higher risk of suicide, according to the study above.
• Nearly 30 percent of students are either bullies or victims of bullying, and 160,000 kids stay home from school daily because of fear of bullying, according to statistics reported by ABC News.
Suicide that’s related to bullying can be connected to any type of bullying, and this includes the following: physical bullying, emotional bullying, cyberbullying and sexting, or circulating nude- or suggestive photos or messages about a person.
Some schools or regions have more serious problems with bully-related suicide. This may be due to an excessive problem with bullying at the school, Bullying Statistics reports. It can also be related to a tendency among some students exposed to suicide to consider suicide themselves.
Warning signs of suicide can include:
• Showing signs of depression, such as ongoing sadness, withdrawal from others, losing interest in favorite activities, or trouble sleeping or eating.
• Talking about death, or showing an interest in death or dying.
• Engaging in dangerous or harmful activities. This includes reckless behavior, substance abuse, or self-injury.
• Giving away favorite possessions and saying goodbye to people.
• Saying that they can’t handle things anymore.
• Saying that things would be better without them.
If a person is showing these symptoms, tell them about your concerns and find help for them right away, such as from a doctor, counselor, or at the emergency room. It’s not always obvious when a teenager is considering suicide, such as in cases that when the suicide looks to be triggered by a particularly nasty episode of bullying. In a string of cases where bullying victims killed themselves, bullies had told the teen victims that they should kill themselves or that the world would be a better place without them. Anyone who hears this should put a stop to it quickly and tell the victim that the bully is wrong.
Hopefully the Knudson family will be able to get through this without such trouble.
