Ryan Ellsworth has been vilified by video, portrayed internationally as a heartless bully.
Though rattled, the 14-year-old boy is not making excuses.
“It makes me feel horrible but I could have stopped it,” said Ellsworth. “I one hundred per cent regret what I did. I made a terrible choice that day.”
That day he egged on a vicious act of cruelty against Brett Corbett and seemingly relished the moment. Ellsworth was only a few feet from the disabled boy lying face down in the water.
He watched a girl scamper across Corbett’s back, and after that he flung a rock in the boy’s direction. The video has since gone viral and made international news.
Ellsworth was among three Glace Bay students suspended for their involvement in the Nov. 9 incident.
“I just got caught up in the moment and I never thought about the consequences of my actions. But almost right after I regretted what I had done. I needed to be told about the impact of my behaviour. It was a terrible decision.”
He says bullying is a serious issue and has been almost normalized at Glace Bay High School. School administrators are not doing enough to deal with the problem, the Grade 9 student says.
“I’m not making excuses because what I did was wrong, but I hear and see a lot of bullying going on in our school and not much is being done about it.
"I’ve been bullied from Grade 5 to Grade 8.”
Since the incident, he says he’s been subjected to a number of threats, and he’s hoping it will come to an end soon.
But the boy says he’s trying to make amends. He attended an anti-bullying rally in the community last weekend where he personally apologized to Corbett. He’s since volunteered with the Glace Bay Elementary School breakfast program. He also joined his school’s peer mentoring program.
Despite the backlash, he says he appreciates the support he’s gotten from some community members, particularly from a teacher and his hockey coach.
“They’ve told me that they’re there for me if I needed to talk. My coach told me I made a really bad decision but said keep your head up. That meant a lot.”
Most of all, he says, his dad Jim Ellsworth has been his biggest support.
“He’s made me realize that I made a big mistake but that I can learn from it. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
“I know one hundred per cent that he would intervene if he had his time back, ” said the boy’s dad. “My wife and I have tried to instill values about respecting people and Ryan and I have shed a lot of tears over this. But I think through this ordeal he’s become a better person.
“He’s a boy and he’s learning from his mistakes and I think he has a lot more tools now to not only never do something like this again, but to put a stop to bullying behaviour when he witnesses it. If one kid gives pause before they decide to bully someone, then I think that’s something good that can be taken from what is a terrible thing.”
He said previously he’d gotten positive reports from his son’s school teachers, including last year. He said he was informed by his son’s homeroom teacher that Ryan had befriended a student with autism, who had been the subject of bullying.
“She said every morning Ryan gives him a high-five and goes down to the canteen and buys him a bottle of water every morning. It was those things that made it so hard to wrap my head around the incident and come to terms with it.”
Despite how difficult the ordeal has been, the boy’s father also sees a silver lining.
“It’s brought about some community awareness, the need to change the culture and the importance of looking out for each other.
“It’s also brought Ryan and I closer together. I told him this is going to be one of the crappiest things you’re going to have to deal with and you’re going to have to face it. But I also told him I’m going to be here for you. I’ll be by your side every step of the way.”
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