VOLUSIA COUNTY, FL (WESH/CNN) – After learning his 13-year-old son bullied multiple classmates, a Florida father punished the teenager by making him hold a sign that read “I’m a bully. Honk if you hate bullies.”
Father Michael Yager says he was outraged when he learned his son, Jacob, had been bullying his classmates at New Smyrna Beach Middle School in New Smyrna Beach, FL.
Wanting to teach his 13-year-old a lesson, the frustrated father took an unorthodox approach. He hand-lettered a sign that read “I’m a bully. Honk if you hate bullies” and drove Jacob to a busy street corner.
"I figured I would teach him a lesson that would embarrass him and make him feel the way that the kids feel,” Michael Yager said.
Jacob says it didn’t take long for people to start honking, and he felt “embarrassed and kind of nervous.” Some people, including law enforcement officers, even stopped to talk to the father and son.
The father says though he received a good response in his neighborhood, he acknowledges not everyone agrees with his parenting.
"I had one woman come up and call me every name in the book," Michael Yager said. "In my mind, I thought I was doing the right thing, but I guess you just can't please everyone."
Jacob says he has learned an invaluable lesson and now plans to help his classmates.
"You never know what someone can be going through. If you want to be the bully and if you have something inside you need to tell someone, go to a guidance counselor or someone,” he said.
Copyright 2018 WESH, Yager Family via CNN. All rights reserved.
