Keaton Jones Bullying Video
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Overview
Keaton Jones Bullying Video refers to a recording of Maynardville, Tennessee sixth-grader Keaton Jones talking about his experience being bullied to his mother and wondering about the motives why people bully. The video went viral, causing several celebrities to voice their support for Jones.
Background
The video was first posted by Keaton's mother Kimberly on her Facebook page, though the original post is currently inaccessible. According to The Washington Post,[5] the video was posted December 8th, 2017 with the caption, "My kids are by no stretch perfect, & at home, he’s as all boy as they come, but by all accounts he’s good at school… Talk to your kids. … We all know how it feels to want to belong, but only a select few know how it really feels not to belong anywhere." It was reposted on December 9th, 2017 by Twitter user @Elijah_Official,[1] where it gained over 182,000 retweets and 371,000 likes (shown below).
YALL HE IS SHAKING!!!!! This is what is going on in these school what about the ones who don’t tell someone😡😡 THIS IS WHY I CANT STAND A FUCKIN BULLY!!! pic.twitter.com/reE43WvDQK
— 𝑒𝓁𝒾𝒿𝒶𝒽 𝒿𝑜𝒽𝓃𝓈𝑜𝓃 (@Elijah_Official) December 9, 2017
Developments
The video was reposted by @Everything_TN the same day, and gained an additional 108,000 retweets and 263,000 likes. The video soon drew the attention of high profile celebrities. One of the first to recognize the video was UFC president Dana White,[2] who quote-tweeted the video and offered to have Keaton tour the UFC headquarters, gaining 65,000 retweets and 171,000 likes (shown below, left). An outpouring of celebrity support soon followed, as major celebrities including Snoop Dogg, Katy Perry, Millie Bobbie Brown, Chris Evans, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Sean Hannity, and Donald Trump Jr. (shown below, right) voiced their support for support.[3]
Milkshake Duck Allegations
The principal of Keaton's school, Greg Clay, responded to the video by saying bullying in his school was not as rampant as the video made it seem.[4] Twitter users found Kimberly Jones' Facebook profile and saw that she had made anti-Black Lives Matter statements and had pictures of her family toting the confederate flag. Twitter user Tariq Nasheed[6] posted a collage of several posts of Kimberly Jones', saying it was ironic that she shared an anti-bullying post when she is suspected of bullying black protestors, 7,300 retweets and 8,600 likes (shown below). This leading some to claim Kimberly Jones was a Milkshake Duck. [7]
On December 11th, Instagram user and MMA fighter joe_schilling[8] posted an alleged exchange between someone who may be Kimberly Jones and himself in which she said "Us whites need to stick together" against "the predator," referring to black people. Schilling could not confirm if it was actually Kimberly Jones, but it was someone running a GoFundMe in Keaton's name (shown below). That GoFundMe was shut down by the site for fraud concerns.[11] Furthermore, The Root[9] said that Kimberly Jones once said Keaton had called other children "The N Word" in now-inaccessible Facebook posts.
Response
Schilling also took to YouTube saying that he had reached out to Jones' mom looking to take Keaton to an MMA event and she declined, saying she only wanted money for the GoFundMe. According to Schilling, she asked for the money to buy Christmas presents (shown below). A thread about Schilling's response was posted to Reddit's /r/videos and gained over 6,800 points.[12]
After the controversy caused several commenters to decry Kimberly Jones, Joseph Lam,[10] the man who started a second GoFundMe for Keaton's college fund, paused donations, writing:
As many of you know I paused the donations as well as the comments. As I sit back and read these comments and watched the video again I feel I have to make this update. THIS IS NOT ABOUT THE MOM!! However passing judgement on her before you know her is a form of bullying. Condemnation before evaluation is the ultimate form of ignorance. I can't even say for sure that any of whats being said is true. I don't know the family personally and never claimed to have known them. This is about a kid who's been bullied and not just one kid, Keaton, there are many unspoken cases about kids being bullied. We have to be the voice for the voiceless. In the video I saw a kid crying not just for himself but for others. To me thats a kid with a heart of gold and deserves praise. Im hoping that we can turn the money into something good whether it be for private school or college fund. Im in touch with GFM on how to proceed at this point. Thank you every one that donated.
On YouTube, Philip DeFranco recapped the entire story on December 11th, gaining over 1.2 million views (shown below). Kimberly and Keaton appeared on Good Morning America, where Kimberly said in an interview that the photos of the family with the confederate flag were meant to be an "ironic and extreme joke" (shown below, right).
Search Interest
External References
[1] Archive – @Elijah_Official Tweet
[2] Twitter – @DanaWhite
[3] USA Today – Celebrities stand with Keaton Jones, boy who spoke against bullying
[4] Knoxnews – Principal responds to viral Keaton Jones bullying video 'It's not as rampant as the video would have you believe'
[5] The Washington Post – A boy shared the pain of being bullied -- inspiring thousands to show him love
[6] Twitter – TariqNasheed
[7] Twitter – @Lukeoneil47
[8] Instagram – Joe_Schilling
[9] The Root – He Went Viral Because of Bullying, but Keaton Jones’ Mother Just Might Be a Racist Money Grabber
[10] GoFundMe – Stand up for Keaton
[11] TMZ – KEATON JONES GOFUNDME PROBLEMS Account On Hold, $58k Left Hanging!!!
[12] Reddit – MMA Fighter tried to help Keaton Jones' mother, but claims she only wanted the money
Top Comments
Freakenstein Moderator
Dec 11, 2017 at 03:26PM EST
H.UNgrammar
Dec 11, 2017 at 03:22PM EST