Latest / KIIS Breakfast / 😞 "We got the call no parent ever wants" - Father of son who was king punched

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😞 "We got the call no parent ever wants" - Father of son who was king punched · KIIS Breakfast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Tweveth the following summer. Maybe confronting and distressing for some listener,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: this question is advised. This is tough chat. It's set serious,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: all right.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: So we're about to have a chat to Neil Davis. Now,
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: his son Sammy tragically killed in a one punch attack
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: at the age of seventeen. This was many years ago,
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  Speaker 2: and Neil has now founded the Sammy d Foundation. So
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  Speaker 2: it's a charity dedicated to preventing youth violence. And we
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: all know these one punch attacks were going on for
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  Speaker 2: quite a while there, Amy, and people can die.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Absolutely.
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  Speaker 4: I feel like all you need is to be hit
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  Speaker 4: in certain areas or to fall and land in a
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  Speaker 4: certain way, and it's tragic.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Neil's are on the line with us right now.
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  Speaker 2: Hello Neil, Good morning mate.
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  Speaker 5: Hey Neil, come on morning.
• 0:54
  Speaker 6: Thanks having me on.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much for joining us.
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  Speaker 4: Neil, Can you can you just start by telling us
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: a little bit about what happened to your son Sammy.
• 1:02
  Speaker 5: Well, my son sam She was a lucky young boy,
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  Speaker 5: very good at sport. He's played state soccer, a great cricket.
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  Speaker 5: When he's fifteen, changed to AFL and was going into
• 1:16
  Speaker 5: the AFL the year that he passed away, it was
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  Speaker 5: one hundred and ninety five centimeters and ninety five kilograms.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, it's a big boy.
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  Speaker 3: It's not a small guy. Yep.
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  Speaker 5: No, and a very popular boy. And went to a
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  Speaker 5: party one night. Some gate crashes came. They were picking
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  Speaker 5: on his friends. He stood up to break it up,
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  Speaker 5: got king hit from behind, and we got that phone
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  Speaker 5: call that no parents want to get that come to
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  Speaker 5: the hospital because your son's not going to come home.
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: Oh man, that is so heartbreaking.
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  Speaker 3: You know.
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  Speaker 4: I'm a mom of three kids, two of them are boys,
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  Speaker 4: and you hear about stories like this, and I just.
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  Speaker 3: I'm so sorry that that happened to your son.
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  Speaker 4: I can't even imagine, you know, the thoughts stuff of
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  Speaker 4: going of what's going through your head at those times,
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  Speaker 4: especially when he was just doing the right thing and
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  Speaker 4: standing up for a mate.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: Well, that night in the hospitals when we decided we
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  Speaker 5: were going to do something to make a difference. Sam
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  Speaker 5: was really popular. Seventeen hundred people come to his funeral.
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  Speaker 3: Wow.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, and that's before Facebook, so it was MySpace in
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  Speaker 5: those days. But so to get that many people to
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  Speaker 5: come to celebrate Sam's life was it was good for us,
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  Speaker 5: you know, it was the worst day of our lives,
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  Speaker 5: but like it made us feel a little bit better
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  Speaker 5: and knowing that he had influence over so many people.
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  Speaker 6: And it was at the start, we're going to.
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  Speaker 5: Start something to give his friends something to focus on
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  Speaker 5: so they wouldn't just be worried about seeking revenge. Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: Right, What about the boys that attacked your son, do
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  Speaker 2: you know how they feel regret for their actions or
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  Speaker 2: like what happened there?
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  Speaker 5: Well, no one was ever found guilty. The boy that
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  Speaker 5: they charged was found not guilty, right, but you know
• 3:03
  Speaker 5: it doesn't matter. If he got found guilty and he
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  Speaker 5: went to jail, it wouldn't be enough time doesn't change anything,
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  Speaker 5: and it'd be too much time for his family, not
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  Speaker 5: enough time for our family.
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  Speaker 6: And it was never going to bring Sam back, you know.
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  Speaker 2: So you go around now with your foundation speaking to schools,
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  Speaker 2: boys in particular, how do the boys react when you
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  Speaker 2: talk about the dangers of violence?
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  Speaker 5: When we go into a school that we get the
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  Speaker 5: same reaction from every school and it's we've never seen.
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  Speaker 6: The kids be so quiet for so long.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, we'd tell a real story. So lots of pictures
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  Speaker 5: of Sam. But tell kids. You could say in the radio,
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  Speaker 5: or the police could say, teachers could say if you
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  Speaker 5: hit someone, someone could die, and they go, yeah, sure,
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  Speaker 5: but we're giving a real life example, and we're saying
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  Speaker 5: my son got hit once and he did die. Yeah,
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  Speaker 5: And so we get tears, we get hugs, we get
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: parents bring us up and say you come into our
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  Speaker 5: child's school today. And normally when I pick them up
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  Speaker 5: and say what do you do at school today, they
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  Speaker 5: say nothing, But we think we heard your presentation word
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  Speaker 5: for word.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Wow, So you're obviously put.
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  Speaker 5: Up lies communication.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, And it sounds like you're making an impact on
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  Speaker 4: these young kids. And I feel like it's harder than
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  Speaker 4: ever to raise young men in this day and age
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  Speaker 4: like now, you've got the likes of social media and
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  Speaker 4: the Manisphere and people like Andrew Tate. What do you
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  Speaker 4: think the main threats right now are like that are
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  Speaker 4: pushing young men to violence and dangerous behavior.
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  Speaker 6: Neil, I think it is that Manisphere.
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  Speaker 5: You know, we've did a nationwide survey and you know,
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  Speaker 5: eighty three percent of people are concerned about the influence
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  Speaker 5: that manisphere has on the young boys. Yeah, but you know,
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  Speaker 5: if you look at like, who knows about Manisphere, and
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  Speaker 5: it's eighty percent of older people like me, I've never
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  Speaker 5: heard of it.
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  Speaker 6: But the young gen z's most of them have heard
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  Speaker 6: of it.
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  Speaker 2: And it does promote kind of that much show behavior.
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  Speaker 2: We're masculine, Yeah, because you're saying, don't fight at all, right,
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  Speaker 2: because one punch can lead to someone dying. But this
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  Speaker 2: kind of culture is creating men to be fighters.
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  Speaker 4: Well, it's kind of encourages you to like not back
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  Speaker 4: down and to not run away and all that kind
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  Speaker 4: of stuff.
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  Speaker 5: And it's also the disrespect as well. So if we
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  Speaker 5: get boys and girls in there at the same time
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  Speaker 5: and we talk to them at the same time Manisphere,
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  Speaker 5: it's amazing how much young men's perceptions change.
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  Speaker 6: And it's we're.
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  Speaker 5: Trying to explain to them as well. If you watch
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  Speaker 5: I don't know if you've seen Menace, but if you
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  Speaker 5: watch people like that, it's rage bait. The more people
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  Speaker 5: they get clicking on it, the more money they get.
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  Speaker 5: They're not worried about young kids. And you watch them,
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  Speaker 5: and look, if you speak to young men, if you
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  Speaker 5: want to speak about Manisphere, So, how would you feel
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  Speaker 5: is someone treated your mother like this?
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  Speaker 1: Yeah?
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  Speaker 5: Or your sister or your sister that's right. Yeah, And
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  Speaker 5: you know it's parents that we've got to change as well,
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  Speaker 5: when we go into a school and we say who's here,
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  Speaker 5: As parents have said to them, if someone hits you,
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  Speaker 5: you can hit them back.
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  Speaker 7: I think one of the things that we used to
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  Speaker 7: worry about was young men drinking alcohol and going out
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  Speaker 7: and causing trouble. But then obviously bringing up a great
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  Speaker 7: point there that social media is now a problem. How
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  Speaker 7: do you reckon this social media band? There's you know,
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  Speaker 7: under sixteen's in Australia are now not allowed to touch
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  Speaker 7: their touch their phones have accounts. I mean it's not
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  Speaker 7: working for everyone, but you think maybe that that is
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  Speaker 7: a way to sort of preventing these sorts of incidents.
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  Speaker 6: I think it is. Yes, I've got a thirteen year
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  Speaker 6: old as well. He doesn't think it is.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: The under sixteen year olds aren't loving it, yep.
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  Speaker 6: But you know, eventually it's going to get up to a.
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  Speaker 5: Stage where kids never had it to start with and
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  Speaker 5: so not going to know any difference.
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  Speaker 6: That's true.
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  Speaker 2: You don't know what you what you didn't have. So
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  Speaker 2: your main message two boys, apart from ignoring this manisphere
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  Speaker 2: of stuff is just don't fight, right, don't fight at all,
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  Speaker 2: don't get involved because one punch could kill.
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  Speaker 6: Someone, and it's keeping your mates safe.
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  Speaker 5: You know, you see your mate getting that angry and
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  Speaker 5: when you've got to get them to walk away. And
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  Speaker 5: if your friends do walk away, don't say I can't believe.
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  Speaker 6: You walked away, You're weak.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, you should be saying I'm glad you walked away
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  Speaker 5: because at least I've got you for another day.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah exactly.
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  Speaker 6: I think. Do you think Sam's friends will see you
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  Speaker 6: had walked away that day? Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, of course they do.
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  Speaker 6: I wish you did.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, good on your mate.
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  Speaker 2: It's a really tough conversation and something that's worth having.
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  Speaker 2: If you want to donate and support the Sammy d Foundation,
• 7:45
  Speaker 2: check out Sammy d Foundation dot org dot a you
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  Speaker 2: Neil Davis mate, thank you for coming on and being
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  Speaker 2: so honest.
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  Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, thanks thanks for having me on.
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  Speaker 2: Good great, all right, Yeah, you must worry about this
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  Speaker 2: stuff with your kids, with your two boys.
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  Speaker 3: I think about it.
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  Speaker 4: I'm like, I'm just gonna flee and buy a country
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  Speaker 4: off I don't know somewhere and go and live in
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  Speaker 4: the country, live in the country away from social media
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  Speaker 4: and everything.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, that's not gonna happen, Neil.
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  Speaker 7: Neil made a great point there, and obviously we're approaching
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  Speaker 7: a weekend, but you know, there's definitely everyone's going to
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  Speaker 7: be going out this weekend, and you do have a
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  Speaker 7: role to play. If your friend is the dickhead, you know,
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  Speaker 7: you do have a role to If you see him
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  Speaker 7: doing something, you escalate, get up and say don't do that.
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  Speaker 2: Many it's really hard to undo that culture though you
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  Speaker 2: and I know guys typically like they'll get involved or
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  Speaker 2: they'll stand up for a mate. They think standing up
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  Speaker 2: for a mate would be getting involved in the fight. Yeah,
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: but Neil's saying no, it's telling him to de escalate.