A group of bullies goaded an Ohio teen with learning disabilities to take the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge — and allegedly filled it urine, feces and cigarette butts.
The 15-year-old boy felt humiliated when the filthy concoction of bodily fluids washed over his body, according to his family.
The incident — captured on the unidentified autistic boy’s cellphone — shows that he stripped down to his underwear to raise awareness for Lou Gehrig’s disease in a driveway.
Instead, he unintentionally raised awareness for bullying of children with special needs.
“Once we found out about it, we were just horrified,” the boy’s mother Diane told WJW. “I want these kids held accountable for what they did to him and they targeted somebody who just didn’t really understand what was going on.”
The Bay Village family reportedly approves of the video being shown to shine a light on the cruelty of bullying that many teens face, but requested that their last name be withheld to protect the boy’s identify.
“I mean, the first thing that popped into my mind was like, why could someone — how could someone do this?” his brother Jacob told the Fox affiliate. “How could someone really be this cruel to someone?”
Afterward, the teens posted the video to Instagram to further embarrass the boy, his family said.
The Bay Village Police Department and Bay High School are both investigating the incident and charges could be filed, according to a local detective.
“The bucket challenge is supposed to be raising awareness for this disease and now they’ve turned it into a sick joke,” Diane said. “I just can’t understand why kids would do something this cruel.”
mwalsh@nydailynews.com
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