The mother of Quaden Bayles has broken down in tears as she revealed the series of events that led to her son’s heartbreaking meltdown last month.
Yarraka Bayles for the first time on Wednesday spoke in detail about the video of her son saying he wanted to kill himself.
The nine-year-old boy, who has dwarfism, became a global sensation after he was filmed saying crying after being bullied at school.
The video quickly went viral, sparking an outpouring of support from people and celebrities all over the world, ultimately launching an anti-bullying campaign.
But the footage also attracted criticism from trolls – who accused the family of staging the video as a scheme to get money.
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Yarraka Bayles broke down in tears as she revealed the series of events that led to her nine-year-old son saying he wanted to end his life
Quaden Bayles, from Brisbane, made international headlines when his mother Yarraka filmed him saying he wanted to die after being bullied at school (pictured)
In an interview with National Indigenous Television’s The Point, Ms Bayles responded to the furore over the footage, saying decided to share the distressing video after she felt ‘hopeless’ seeing her son in such a state.
‘Looking at that video it is very distressing, it’s very triggering. Sometimes I think I’m trying to raise awareness, but sometimes I realise I’m actually doing more harm than good, so it’s taught me a very valuable lesson as well,’ she said.
‘But at that time at recording I just felt hopeless. I felt really and truly hopeless, like what is going to take? For me to lose my son before anything happens?
‘I can’t do that, I’m not going to wait,’ she said choking back tears.
Ms Bayles revealed she and her daughter had arrived to pick Quaden up from school when they noticed he was being picked on by a group of schoolgirls.
‘Apparently, there was a new student that wasn’t aware of Quaden’s condition and she had been making remarks, and Quaden had just had enough at the time,’ she said.
In an interview with National Indigenous Television’s The Point, Ms Bayles responded to the furore over the footage, saying decided to share the distressing video after she felt ‘hopeless’ seeing her son in such a state
Quaden Bayles (pictured with his mum Yarraka Bayles) has delivered a heartwarming response to the bullies who made him want to take his own life
‘When me and my daughter witnessed that, the patting on the head and a couple of other little girls making reference to his height and laughing about it, he was very uncomfortable and I could see the look on his face.
‘I know that look very well because it’s a regular occurrence, especially when we’re in public.’
Ms Bayles said she considered stepping in to defend her son from the bullies, but chose to back off after realising he did not want her to intervene.
‘We were ready to use that opportunity, not to add fuel to the fire, but it was an opportunity for us to educate and speak to the students while we were all there together,’ she said.
‘But he didn’t want us to do that so we respected his wishes. He just brushed it off as he usually does, he doesn’t like to show anyone how much it does affects him – but as soon as we got in the car, about 15 minutes after that incident he just broke down.’
Quaden – who has the most common type of dwarfism called achondroplasia – was seen sobbing into the camera and saying he was suicidal from being relentlessly bullied.
He told his mother: ‘Give me a rope, I want to kill myself.’
‘I just want to stab myself in the heart… I want someone to kill me.’
Quaden also scratched at his neck and said: ‘I want to die… I want to scratch myself’.
Ms Bayles said before going live with her video, she rang the school principal to let her know her son was being bullied.
‘I guess what people didn’t see is what was said and done before I started recording,’ she said.
‘I’m setting up this GoFundMe to let Quaden know that bullying will not be tolerated, and that he is a wonderful human being who deserves joy,’ Williams wrote on the GoFundMe page
Former rugby league player Johnathan Thurston poses with Quaden Bayles from Brisbane
‘It was me comforting him and consoling him, and being the typical boy Quaden is, he thinks that I didn’t do anything to stand up for him. So it was really difficult for me as a mum to watch that and not be able to do anything about it.’
‘People might think it’s just a pat on the head, it’s nothing, but if you actually speak to people in the short-stature community it can be quite dehumansing.
‘Patting someone on the head just because they may be at that height, it’s almost like you think they’re an animal, or a novelty – they’re not quite human. ‘
Ms Bayles said the issue was not the school or the child who bullied her son, but the dozens of similar moments that he has experienced in his life due to his condition.
‘By no means is this an attack on the school or the child. I’m glad that the child hopefully will never know that this isn’t just the incident that caused him to be so distressed. There’s so much more to it.
‘There’s been a fair few similar incidents and much more sensitive ones that I do not share. I have to keep a video journal. The video journal I’ve been keeping since he was three years old just so I can show the specialist what a day is really like for Quaden. ‘
Ms Bayles revealed Quaden had just returned to school for the first time after a year of being in and out of the hospital due to a decline in his health.
He was three weeks into the academic year when he began experiencing cruel taunts from the other children.
Ms Bayles said she chose to go public with her video in hopes of teaching the public a lesson on bullying and prevent suicide.
‘For me it was like, what more can I do now? I want people to understand the effects of bullying, I want them to see the impact that it’s having.
Quaden leads the Indigenous All Stars on to the field with captain Joel Thompson on Saturday
Quaden Bayles, a nine-year-old boy with dwarfism, has has misinformation spread about his age and message since a video of him saying he wanted to kill himself in response to bullying went viral last week
‘I don’t want to see another life lost due to an issue that could’ve been avoided. So for me, talking about it, is taking that power back, and it’s making people aware and hopefully helping them sit down with their children to yarn with them about people of all different abilities.
‘Half of our Indigenous community here in Australia are affected by some form of a disability, so I think it’s well overdue.’
Quaden himself also delivered a delivered a powerful message to his bullies, encouraging them to be kind.
He admitted he still does not like going school ‘because of the bullies’.
‘Because they’ve never seen different people before,’ he said.
‘It’s not nice when you say these rude things to other people. If you see someone different just don’t be rude, just smile and say hi.
‘It would be good if they knew about other people who have diseases and things, and just be kind.’
The family has turned down ‘several paid interviews in the US and UK’, a spokesman for the family confirmed.
They even rejected an interview with comedian Ellen DeGeneres, opting instead to do an unpaid interview with NITV to support the local media network.
‘That’s how much they value their own culture,’ a source told TV Blackbox.
‘The information is all correct – he was not paid for the interview. The family have a long and trusted association with NITV, having first shared Quaden’s story with Living Black in 2015 when Quaden was only four-years-old,’ the spokesman said.
Shortly after the footage of Quaden talking about suicide went viral, an online fundraiser, ‘Let’s send a wonderful kid to Disneyland’, was set up by US comedian Brad Williams, who also has dwarfism.
More than 20,000 donors from across the world flocked to give $723,000 (US $474,000) to give Quaden’s family the special treat.
But on Thursday afternoon, his family stunned fans by turning down the trip – saying they would rather the money be given to charity to help combat bullying and suicide.
‘What kid wouldn’t want to go to Disneyland, especially if you have lived Quaden’s life,’ his aunt Mundanara told NITV News.
‘But my sister said ‘you know what, let’s get back to the real issue’. This little fella has been bullied. How many suicides, black or white, in our society have happened due to bullying.
‘We want the money to go to community organisations that really need it. They know what the money should be spent on.
‘So as much as we want to go to Disneyland, I think our community would far off benefit from that.’
Six charities will each receive approximately $66,000 USD.
The charities receiving the money include, Born This Way Foundation, STOMP Out Bullying, Dolly’s Dream, Dwarfism Awareness Australia, Gallang Place and the Balunu Foundation.
The remaining funds will go to Quaden to cover ‘direct medical help, education, accommodation costs, food to feed the family’ and donations to charities of his choice.
The nine-year-old was invited to walk the Indigenous All-Stars NRL team onto the pitch at Cbus Super Stadium, on the Gold Coast, as they took on the Maori All-Stars on Saturday.
Ms Bayles said Quaden had gone ‘from the worst day of his life to the best day of his life’ after being asked to lead out the NRL team.