Prior Lake Brad Knudson - A Prior Lake, MN father, who is worried and fed up about his daughter being bullied, has made an emotional Youtube video calling out the bullies and their parents.
Brad Knudson's heartfelt message was posted on Monday and has since gone viral. In the six minute video, he explained how his adopted African American daughter is being bullied because of her race.
"We have a very beautiful African American daughter that we were very fortunate enough to adopt 11 years ago," Knudson said."We've dealt with a little bit of racism, you know, stares, things like that when she calls us mom or dad, but she didn't notice so we just blew it off because it was directed towards us."
However, on New Year's Eve, Knudson's daughter, now an eighth grader, was at home with a friend chatting on Snapchat when the incident happened.
Two brothers, twins, from her school, started sending her racist messages via Snapchat. The bullying messages would play and then disappear. However, she did not report the bullies to her parents. But her friend informed Knudson and his wife about the incident after the twins sent their fourth message.
Brad Knudson filmed the racist messages on his phone and played it to the camera in the video. The footage features the brothers making faces and calling the young girl a "sl**, a n***** and a fat a** b****."
Knudson and his wife located and contacted the twins' parents to inform them about their children's awful behavior, but received no response.
"I love my daughter and I don't want her to end up committing suicide because of freaking morons," Knudson said. "I can't have this hanging over us and my daughter thinking the worst."
Knudson reported the case to the police, who visited the school and contacted the parents of the twins.
Afterwards, Knudson was able to reach the father of the twins, Mr Deron Puro - and he learned that the apple don't really fall to far from the tree.
"He didn't understand what was wrong with the video," Knudson said. "He told me I was crazy, that that's what he did when he was a kid. Him and his family make jokes at the house using this word all the time so what was the big deal?"
That wasn't all. Puro then left voicemail messages on Knudson's phone. "Yeah Brad, tides have turned, huh? I guess you're a n*****lover. Call me back."
"That's a correct statement because I am a n***** lover I have a beautiful African American daughter who I love more than life itself and would do anything for her," Knudson responded.
Brad Knudson's video has since been viewed over 300,000 times on Youtube, so much so that Puro's employer fried him as a result of the revelations.
On Wednesday, the financial firm where Puro worked as an independent contractor announced the decision to terminate his contract.
"Deron Puro is no longer associated with Roy E. Abbott Futures, Inc. as of today January 21st," a message on the company's website read.
Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools have issued a statement saying that they were investigating the incident.
"First and foremost, we do not tolerate racism, harassment or bullying of any kind," Kristi Mussman, director of communication for the district said."We are conducting our own investigation to get a better understanding of the events that led up to this video. We have reached out to Mr. Knudson directly to offer support for his daughter."
