Popular YouTube family channel ‘8 Passengers’ is coming under fire from fans after their 15-year-old son detailed the harsh punishment he’d been given for pulling a prank on his little brother.
8 Passengers, as the channel has been so named, details the daily lives of the Franke family and their six children.
Known for her strict parenting, mother Ruby Franke is facing mass backlash from critics due to a video posted in late May, titled “What We Haven’t Told You,” which featured a shocking confession from her oldest son, Chad.
In the video, Chad admitted that he’d been forced to sleep in their basement on a bean bag chair for seven months as punishment for tricking his little brother into thinking the family was going to Disney Land.
“My bedroom was taken away for seven months and then you gave it back like, a couple of weeks ago,” Chad revealed. “I’ve been sleeping on a beanbag since October. They gave my room back two weeks ago.”
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“I woke Russell up at two in the morning and told him that we’re going to Disney Land and he had to pack,” he continued.
“He made his bed all neatly and packed his clothes in the suitcase. He walked out the door and I’m like, ‘Russell… we’re not going to Disney Land.’ He started crying and hitting me.”
Ruby clarified that his Disney Land prank wasn’t the only reason for his harsh punishment, citing an instance where Chad had allegedly pointed a BB gun at Russell’s face and purportedly left him hanging on a basketball rim.
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Despite the family laughing at this exchange, many commenters haven’t found the punishment funny, with users sounding off in alarm at what many feel to be abuse.
“She is sick,” one commenter wrote on a re-uploaded version of the now-deleted video. “Her kids will end up needing therapy ‘cause of her.”
“She is not ‘filming’ her life,” another argued. “She is publicly embarrassing her KIDS. …If I was her child, I would be so embarrassed to say she was my mom. SO TOXIC!”
A petition has since been created asking that local Child Protective Services look into the household, which boasts over 3,700 signatures at the time of writing.
Ruby has yet to speak out on the matter, although she has deleted several videos from the 8 Passengers YouTube channel, including this one that’s caused a lot of controversy.