Bryan Thornhilll said the punishment came after his son was kicked off the school bus for bullying.
A fierce debate is raging over a video that shows a father forcing his 10-year-old son to run to school in the rain.
In the footage, Bryan Thornhill is seen driving slowly behind his son, Hayden, as he runs to school in Roanoke, Va. Behind the camera, Thornhill explains he made Hayden run for a mile for bullying other kids on the school bus.
"He was being a little bully, which I do not tolerate," Thornhill says. "This right here is just old school, simple parenting."
Thornhill later spoke to his son in the car.
"Tell everybody you're gonna behave now," Thornhill said.
"I'm gonna behave now," Hayden said.
After posting the video to Facebook, opinion was divided. One commenter wrote, "Sometimes tough love is the answer," while another called it "disgusting."
But Thornhill is standing by his parenting technique.
"It was actually a light punishment for what he should have gotten," he told Inside Edition.
He's not taking comments about him to heart.
"If them calling me a bully is what I consider parenting, then I guess I'm a bully," he continued. "But standing up for my kids, and more importantly standing up for other kids that might be the recipient of his bullying... I'm going to stand up for everybody."
Hayden agreed, saying, "It was a well-deserved punishment."
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