HIGHLAND, IL (KTVI) – A teenager living in the St. Louis area is getting back at bullies by teaching them a lesson they won’t forget. Gavin Stone has Asperger’s Syndrome and ADHD. His mom says in a Facebook post that he was beat up last week.
Cortnie Stone says her son Gavin has trouble making friends. He can appear detached and uninterested. People have a hard time understanding her son since Asperger’s and ADHD are not a visible disability. She writes in a Facebook post:
On Thursday night, some kids were talking about how “it’s weird” that he is always by himself, attending events alone and watching people, and it was “creepy” how he wanted to be friends with people he didn’t know. On Friday night, another kid that overheard that conversation decided to take matters into his own hands and become judge and jury, and this is the result of that. He didn’t ask questions, didn’t get to know Gavin, never met him, and didn’t give him a chance to leave. He was called to meet someone, surrounded by people he didn’t know, choked, punched, and left laying on the pavement so he would “learn his lesson”.
His mom says that Gavin suffered a mild concussion, a bruised esophagus, the tip of his nose fractured, and hematoma in his eye. She says the damage is not permanent.
They say they are not pressing charges. Rather, they hope the attackers will learn from a different punishment.
He did not press charges, but requested their community service be disability related, that they write a paper on Asperger’s, and that they watch a 20 min video statement he taped while their families were present so they could see the damage they did and hear the event from his perspective. I am so proud of him, and I hope a lesson will come of this to all that hear about it.
A friend of the family shared the story to Facebook. She says her son also has disabilities. They graduated in the same class. Her post has been shared over 144,000 times. Maybe the world will learn a little more about the disease after the attack.