Bullied teen with rare disease needs new wheelchair after fight

MONROE COUNTY, MIch. (WJBK) - In Monroe County a high school student in a wheelchair was pushed over in a fight, shattering his leg.

He is out of the hospital but on a long road to recovery.

"Words cannot describe what I feel right now," said Jordan White.

White, a ninth grader at Airport High School in Carleton, describes the moment he pulled the first punch on a fellow student he says had been bullying him for months.

"I got tired of it, fed up with it," White said. "He's making fun of me because of my skin color, he's making fun of me because of me being in a wheelchair."

A week ago, White was thrown from his wheelchair, and other students stood by, some even pointing and laughing. Only one girl stepped in to stop the fight.

"It was embarrassing," he said.

White needs his wheelchair because of a brittle bones disease called osteogenesis imperfecta. After the fall he had to undergo emergency surgery on his leg, which he says, has been operated on dozens of times prior.

"The staples and the pins and the rod, that was the only thing that saved it," White said. "It was snapped in half like that, almost torn open."

Jordan says his wheelchair was also broken when he was thrown on the ground. The superintendent says both the students were disciplined, but wouldn't comment further.

"I was like, are you kidding me?" White said. "I know I hit him first but he kind of started all of this."

White says his five day suspension is over, but he's too scared to go back to school, not knowing what could happen next.

He has still not heard from the student who hurt him, while his mom is looking to enroll him in another school.

"I'm hoping that something good comes out of this," said Levette White, Jordan's mom. "Not just for my child, but it opens doors and changes things especially with the bullying."

Because of the fight, White's odds of ever being able to walk, have plummeted. He's currently using a wheelchair on loan from the hospital, but will need a new one, specialized for his condition very soon.

"I'd like to say to the people at home, thank you for caring, thank you for looking out for me, I appreciate that a lot," he said. "Because this is a tough time and I really need support from everyone around me."

"I'm very proud. He's a strong little soldier."

If you would like to donate to the wheelchair fund you can do so via their online donation page here.