Exclusive: After Broken Arm, Boy Cheerleader Still Threatened

Tyler Wilson, 11, said he suffered a broken arm in a fight but cheers on.

ByABC News via logo
September 27, 2010, 1:48 PM

Sept. 29, 2010— -- The boy cheerleader whose arm was allegedly broken by bullies on the football team said today that his schoolmates are now threatening to break his other arm for telling.

"It's been bumpy," Ohio 11-year-old Tyler Wilson said of his return to school in a morning television exclusive interview with "Good Morning America." "People are threatening me to break my other arm because I told on them."

The boy's mother, Kristy Wilson, pressed assault charges against two boys who Tyler said broke his arm during a fight earlier this month after incessant teasing for joining the cheerleading squad.

"When the bell rang we left and we were walking home and they started picking on me," Tyler said. "It came to a point where one kid picked me up on his shoulders and slammed me onto the curb."

But neither the injury nor the threats is stopping Tyler from pursuing his passion for cheering, the boy said.

"It feels horrible that they can't accept me for who I am," Tyler told ABC News' Ohio affiliate WTVG. "It's my choice. If I want to be a cheerleader, I'm going to be a cheerleader."

Kristy Wilson, of Findlay, Ohio, said she warned her boy that he could be teased for choosing to join the cheerleading team -- which is all female -- but said she never thought it devolve so quickly.

"There's no reason for this," Wilson told "Good Morning America" as she sat next to her son wearing a t-shirt emblazoned with a message of support for Tyler. "I mean, every kid gets picked on and the name-calling I kind of understand, but to go so far as breaking somebody's arm or even just the fact that they started a fight? I don't agree with that."

Kristy Wilson said that the teasing began almost immediately, and she tried to work with Tyler on ways to handle it.

"I knew that some of the kids where teasing him, and we talked about ways to deal with that," Wilson told ABC News Monday.

"His first reaction was the tell them to shut up and get verbally combative, and I told him you have to let them know it doesn't bother you... I didn't find out until we went to the school after he was injured that things were starting to get aggressive before that fight even occurred," Wilson said.