Aside from any Ryan Gosling film where lovers reunite amidst torrential rain, tears and a swirling strings section, the joy we feel when the victim becomes the aggressor is cinema’s greatest emotional payoff. Seriously. Some films predicate their entire plot around that one moment. Besides being easy to relate to, these power shifts appeal to us because they’re immensely cathartic and help us to believe that the world has a modicum of justice left in it. It’s the realization that comes when downtrodden martyrs refuse to turn the other cheek, choosing instead to power bomb their antagonists like rag dolls. Such is the tale of 16 year old Sydney kid Casey Heynes, an overweight high school student who, sadly, “has been tormented every single day of his short high school life”.
Yesterday video surfaced of an altercation between Heynes and a student three years his junior. It’s apparent that Heynes is the victim. He stands motionless as the smaller boy ridicules him and strikes him in the face, onlookers goading him on and filming on their camera phones. But then something funny happens – Heynes snaps and retaliates. In just a few seconds he transform from hapless victim to name-taking aggressor, hoisting the diminutive boy above his head and slamming him to the ground. We hear a crack and the bully limps off. Such an act is shocking in its violence but soothing in what it symbolizes. It tells us that acts of cruelty will not go unpunished and those who hurt will be hurt themselves. That sentiment is pretty fucking universal too; see every religion ever for further examples of this. And it’s possibly the only circumstance under which adults will revel in the physical pain of a thirteen year old boy (and they have!).
Both students have since been suspended by their school, Chifley College Dunheved’s Campus in Sydney’s west, but online Heynes has become something of an anti-bullying folk hero. The video has become a viral hit on Youtube and a Facebook fan page has been erected in Heynes’ honour, attracting over 19,000 likes at the time of writing. Channel Ten aired a story on the video last night and a plethora of international news outlets have written about it today. Something in this video has struck a chord with people and part of the appeal must lie in the schadenfreude we feel when we hear that crack. Too often bullying is seen as a necessary byproduct of growing up but being young is no excuse for being cruel. At least one more person knows that now.
