Keaton Jones Bullying Video – Was It a Money Grab By His Mom?
The little boy went viral over the weekend...but by Sunday night, there were allegations of racism and fake fundraising.
#StandWithKeaton was the hashtag that followed Keaton Jones, the little boy from Tennessee who was filmed by his mom, crying about being bullied at school. Kimberly Jones posted the video on Friday, and it went viral within hours.
Celebrities reached out - Chris Pratt invited him to the Avengers premiere next year, he got to hang out with players from the Tennessee Titans, and he received messages of support from Justin Bieber, Terry Crews, Jennifer Lopez, rock band Nickelback, The Walking Dead‘s Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Eyewitness‘ Tyler Young, Lebron James and others.
Slowly, people started to dive into Kimberly's Facebook, where they found some less-than-savory posts about race.
And then, MMA star Joe Schilling posted a video to his Instagram (which has since been deleted) where he said that he called Kimberly and asked to fly Keaton out to LA, to which she replied that she only wanted donations to the GoFundMe.
The principal of Keaton's school released a statement, saying that the bullying incident DID happen and WAS dealt with, but that bullying isn't as "rampant" at the school as described.
As of this morning, the GoFundMe has been suspended.
It's important that we remember, however, that we don't get to choose our parents, or who raises us. If Keaton is being raised in a racist household, that's not his fault. However, it's not okay.
Keaton doesn't deserve to be bullied, and his mom doesn't deserve a GoFundMe. We shouldn't pull our support from this little boy because of the exploitative actions of his mom.
However, not every viral "event" is worthy of a GoFundMe. Anti-bullying organizations may be a better fit for your monetary donations.