Dad decides to teach daughter a lesson after discovering her involvement in racial bullying

Bullying and discrimination, including but not limited to racial prejudice, are among the factors that impede us from being called a decent community. To bring change in society, the change needs to first happen at home. Parents are well aware now and take precautions while raising their children to encourage a more inclusive and healthy environment. However, there are a lot of factors apart from home that influence the way a child is raised. Media, friends, play, schooling, community and many other factors children are exposed to play a role in the actions they take. Reddit user u/ventura4433 wasn't deprived of shock and baffle when he came to know his daughter was a bully.

Despite his efforts to raise ethical individuals, he had to accept the fact that his daughter was part of a group of kids who bullied a girl so brutally that she had to transfer schools.  "Yesterday I was informed that my daughter Sam was a part of a group of students who bullied another girl to the point that she had to switch schools. There was a racial aspect to the bullying, which came as a complete shock since my wife and I truly did our best to raise our 3 kids to be kind and honest individuals," he explained.

As a concerned parent, he needed to do something that would both teach his daughter a lesson and put an end to such behavior for good. "I don’t believe that a grounding and a confiscation of electronics is harsh enough for what Sam did, so I told Sam that she won’t be allowed to participate in homecoming or attend senior prom. I also told her that she won’t be getting a car for her 18th birthday either. Finally, I told her that she’ll have to delete all of her social media accounts with either me or her mother watching," he shared. 

Since prom is a once-in-a-lifetime event, his daughter Sam begged him to let her go. She also asked him to let her keep only her Instagram account because it featured images from years ago that she hadn't saved anyplace else, so he told her she shouldn't have been a racist bully in the first place. "My parents are temporarily staying with us while their house is undergoing renovations. They agree that what Sam did was completely out of line and must be punished, but they think that making my daughter miss homecoming and senior prom and forcing her to delete her social media is far far too harsh," he adds. He asks if he is wrong for "making my daughter miss once-in-a-lifetime events (homecoming and senior prom) and delete all of her social media as punishment for bullying?"

His post received more than 20k upvotes and most people in the comments supported his idea. "This seems appropriate to the level of offense here, especially the deletion of social media accounts," commented u/BaltimoreBadger23. "The person she bullied has also missed lifetime events - having a trauma-free school life for one. That trumps going to prom or homecoming for me. Let her back up the photos before deleting the social media accounts though," wrote u/RevRos.

Some people suggested that instead of a punishment, learning from her behavior might go better. "What if you gave the possibility of earning things back? The point of punishing her is for her to learn from this. To become a better person. Often the best impetus for change is when people see you change and reward you for it. So tell her that homecoming is gone, but if she genuinely learns from this and shows that she is a better person, she might be able to earn senior prom. She’s got to show real change and understanding," added u/KaliTheBlaze. 

This article originally appeared 1 year ago.