Father Who Kicked 6-Year-Old Son Down Skateboard Ramp Criticized On Social Media

A father who kicked his 6-year-old son down a skateboard ramp at a park in Arlington has been widely criticized on social media sites. Having watched the short and pretty gruesome video clip, a spokesman for the Department of Children and Families, John Harrell, said: “We do not consider this to be appropriate behavior.”

The short clip, which was taken by Ryan Stephens, a fellow skater at the park, shows the father, Marcus Crossland kicking his son – nicknamed Dino the Dinosaur – down a ramp called the Big Brown at the Kona Skate Park.

The operator of the park, Martin Ramos, who also saw the footage, said to reporters: “Unfortunately parents get so enthusiastic about their kids and their abilities in skateboarding, or baseball, or football or whatever and sometimes they take it a little too far.”

Dino and his dad are a regular feature at the park and are well-known and liked there by many.

Ramos said this was a firsts as he has never seen the father treat his boy in this way before: “He [Crossland] said he was just caught up in the moment. He seemed very remorseful. He certainly understands the gravity of the situation and it seems like he is going to be answering to this thing for quite some time to come,” he said.

Crossland didn’t say much to reporters other than confirming that he was wanted for questioning by the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. After the video clip was posted on First Coast News Facebook page, it sparked furious comments from people who thought it was a disgrace.

Stephens, the 13-year-old who shot the video, said he confronted Crossland after he watched him kick his son down the ramp: “He said ‘because he needs to learn’. I was like ‘pushing him down is not teaching him how to drop in’. And then he said ‘do you think you can raise him better than me?’ and I said yes,” Stephens said.

Park operator Ramos told Crossland not to return to the park for the time being, as a kind of punishment for what he did: “I encouraged him to put the fun back in it and get out of all the events and all this delusions of grandeur that have him kind of motivated,” he said.