Public figures across the country — including US Representative Joseph Kennedy III and Massachusetts native Chris Evans — are rallying behind a Tennessee boy after his mom posted an emotional video Friday of her son recounting his experiences with bullying at his middle school.
“Why do they bully? What’s the point of it? It’s not okay,” Keaton Jones said in the video as tears streamed down his face. “People that are different don’t need to be criticized about it. It’s not their fault. . . . But if you are bullied, don’t let it bother you. Stay strong I guess. It’s hard, but it will probably get better one day.”
In the video, Keaton said that the bullies made fun of his nose, called him ugly, and said he had no friends.
“They poured milk on me and put ham down my clothes and threw bread at me,” he said, his voice breaking.
Keaton’s mom, Kimberly, wrote that she filmed the video after her son asked her to pick him up because he was afraid to go to lunch.
“We all know how it feels to want to belong, but only a select few know how it really feels not to belong anywhere,” she wrote in the Facebook post.
As of Sunday night, the video had more than 20 million views, and had been shared 415,000 times.
The video drew replies from a variety of public figures, from Massachusetts natives like Kennedy, Evans and Saturday Night Live alum Rachel Dratch to athletes in Jones’s home state, including several members of the Tennessee Titans and Jarrett Guarantano, the University of Tennessee quarterback.
“Stay strong, Keaton. Don’t let them make you turn cold. I promise it gets better,” Evans wrote in a tweet posted Sunday afternoon, inviting Jones to the Los Angeles premiere for the new Avengers movie, in which Evans plays Captain America.
“We can all learn from Keaton Jones,” Kennedy wrote.
Meanwhile, Guarantano evidently met Jones in person. “So I got the chance to spend the day with my new best bud Keaton,” he wrote on Twitter Sunday. “It was unbelievable to get to know him and realize that we have a lot in common.”
Titans tight end Delanie Walker posted a video on his Twitter account Friday, sharing a poem from Buddha and inviting Jones and his family to an upcoming game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, while left tackle Taylor Lewan offered his services as a bodyguard.
Rapper Snoop Dogg also posted the video to his official Instagram account, telling the boy he had a “friend in me for life.”
Here’s what other public figures had to say:
Dylan McGuinness can be reached at dylan.mcguinness@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DylMcGuinness.