x
Breaking News
More () »

'I’ll walk with u' | Urbana football player reaches out to bullied middle schooler

A viral video of a 13-year-old boy being bullied broke hearts. A message a high school football player sent after, is hoping to mend some.

URBANA, Md. — “I’ll walk with u,” is the heartfelt message an Urbana high school football player sent a bullied middle schooler after a disturbing video went viral.

The video shows several Urbana young teens taunting and chasing a 13-year-old student. It was an incident of bullying caught on cell phone video.

The incident reportedly happened off Urbana Middle School grounds the week of February 4th. 

In the cell phone video, kids are heard taunting the student, calling him a "snitch," they curse at him and chase him across a street. You see the camera move as the person recording runs after the victim and those chasing him. Then you see the victim on camera again. He’s on the ground screaming and pleading for the group to stop. It looked like one of the boys had just finished punching the 13-year-old.

This incident is so serious, the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office referred two 13-year-old suspects to Juvenile for 2nd degree assault charges, the department spokesperson told WUSA 9.

The video caused so much outrage online, even Heisman Trophy winner and former NFL Running Back Reggie Bush, weighed-in on Twitter. He also retweeted a very important message.

If the video broke hearts, that retweeted message helped mend some.

Bush shared a text from Urbana High School Quarterback, Kyle Howes. Howes had texted the 13-year-old victim: “Hey bud idk if u like football but I’m the quarterback at Urbana high school my names Kyle Howes what happened to u is not okay …” Howes went on to write, “I’m here for u I’ll walk with u home tomorrow after u guys get out if u would like me too I can’t preach enough how sad what happened to u really is but please read all of this and I’d love to walk u home.”

The 16-year-old tells WUSA 9 he’s never meet the 13-year-old  before. So he asked friends to help track down the middle schooler’s number. He reached out the day after the incident, feeling terrible about what had happened.

“I thought I should say something to him,” Kyle Howes told WUSA 9, “because it’s kind of hard to get over if you’re walking home alone and just seven kids come up to you and want to fight you.”

Kim Howes, Kyle’s mom, could not be more proud of her son as her heart goes out to the 13-year-old boy.

“I – you just can’t imagine like that, that would be your son in an incident like that and I just feel really bad for her – for him as well as for his family, knowing not only going through that but the aftermath as well,” she said.

“It takes a village,” Howes added, when talking about the importance of teaching children to be kind and defend others when needed.

Bush retweeted Howes about a week after the high school quarterback had reached-out. The post received hundreds of likes online.

“I hope it just makes the world a little bit better and stands up for bullying more now [be]cause this whole incident,” said the 16-year-old.

Howes told WUSA 9 he has talked to the 13-year-old’s mother. They're planning to meet sooner than later.

Before You Leave, Check This Out