When an autistic teenager was bullied in America, Pokemon Go players gathered in a touching show of support.
A couple of weekends ago 15-year-old Ty was playing Pokemon Go with his mother in Tempe Town Lake, Arizona, when two students began to squirt barbecue sauce at him and shout insults.
Heartwarming! Dozens of strangers showed up to play PokemonGo w/ autistic teen who was bullied while playing last wk pic.twitter.com/i4TuFMF7yx
— Raquel Cervantes (@RaquelABC15) August 1, 2016
Ty’s sister Hope posted about the incident on the Arizona Pokemon Go Community Facebook page. She wrote: “My brother is the sweetest, goofiest, most caring person I have ever known. He LOVES Pokemon Go.”
She appealed to the Pokemon Go community: “If you see something like this happen, please don’t stand idly by.”
In response to Hope’s post, local Pokemon Go players organised a meet-up in support of Ty. Dozens of people gathered in Tempe Beach Park to play the game with Ty, bringing him gifts and raising awareness for autism.
Dozens of strangers take tAdd excerpteen with autism to play #PokemonGo after bullying incident https://t.co/DksuGRCQfD #abc15 pic.twitter.com/UBOnXR62Ui
— ABC15 Arizona (@abc15) August 1, 2016
Ty’s mother, Angie Swartout, was overwhelmed by the event.
“I’m just so grateful because if this wouldn’t have happened, we would still be hiding in our house like a lot of families like ours do,” she told ABC Arizona.
