The close friend of a teenage girl caught on camera being ruthlessly bullied in Windsor this week is hoping the viral video can do some good.
Going by Amanda Jay, the Windsor resident is echoing the police call for calm after the video prompted backlash against the perpetrators.
"Two wrongs don't make a right," says Jay. "Inciting violence doesn't help anyone or anything."
The video shows a girl wearing a pink sweater — identified by Jay as her friend Sam — being surrounded by a group of other seemingly teenage boys and girls. Two girls part of the group hurled insults at Sam, hitting her and backing her up against a wall.
Sam called Jay after the incident and got picked up by her friend.
The video posted to Jay's Facebook page reached nearly 700,000 views and had roughly 3,000 comments before the video was removed from public view.
Jay hopes the video shows the damage bullying can do and that it serves as a cautionary example.
"I'm hoping that going forward they [the assailants] can use this as something to look back on and reflect on and motivate them to be better people," says Jay. "I guarantee that after everything that's happened, they probably learned a lesson at this point."
Sam attends a special needs program at a Windsor high school.
Jay says her friend has received a lot of support since the incident Tuesday evening.
"Sam has been smiling ear to ear, reading all the positive things that people have been sending to her," says Jay. "There have also been organizations in the community that have offered her everything from flowers, to gift cards, to dinner reservations, to movie tickets; just people in the community showing that they care about something like this and that they care about her."
Jay, a mother of three, says she understands the impacts of bullying first-hand after her daughter — who also has special needs — was bullied intensely.
"She was bullied at school for two years straight, to the point that she's had her glasses taken off of her face and stepped on," says Jay.
While Jay — along with Sam's family — feel the attention the video has received through social media may help shine a stronger spotlight on the bullying issue, it's not likely to end the bullying seen on the streets or online.
"With social media and things like this going around, there is compassion coming out of people, but I don't really know what the solution is," she says.
Jay says the video was initially shared online on Twitter by one of the young people involved in the incident. She posted it on her Facebook page looking to identify the bullies in the video, before going to the police station at about 5:30pm on Wednesday and reporting the incident.
Windsor police are now investigating the case.