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Bike trip 'beats the bullies'

From Volume 5 Number 1 (print edition only)

SYDNEY, Australia: A 15-year-old Brisbane boy with Asperger’s syndrome who disappeared for two weeks and rode his bike more than 950 kilometres to Sydney did it to prove to “bullies” that he wasn’t an idiot, his mother says.
    During his six-day, dawn-to-dusk haul down the east coast, Ethan Johnson slept at truck stops, under bridges and ate at fast-food restaurants.
    Ethan’s mother, Tammy Johnson,  kept putting a small amount of money into his keycard account each day so he could eat.
    Despite this, when  Johnson was finally re-united with her son after police found him at Merrylands train station on Good Friday, she found he’d shed substantial weight.
    Ethan disappeared on the morning of March 30, and was last seen on CCTV footage at Robina train station on the Gold Coast at about 9.20 am.
    Fears for his safety were raised after he failed to turn up to classes at Runcorn State High School, and did not contact any family or friends.
    As it turned out, he was pedalling to prove a point.
    “He rode his bicycle to Sydney for no better reason than to see if he could,” Johnson wrote on the Internet site. “He wanted to prove to some bullies [and everyone else] that he’s not an idiot. And he isn't - he actually planned the whole trip himself - which is so very far outside his comfort zone.”
    Another motivation for Ethan was that he hadn’t seen enough of the city during a school excursion when he was 12,  Johnson said.
“Because we had the CCTV footage, we knew he was safe and the fact that he kept using his keycard as he went along we knew where to find him when he hit Sydney.”
    More than 9,000 people signed up to the site, and most posted warm, motivational messages aimed at instilling Ethan with self-confidence.
    “Ethan, we love and appreciate you, mate. Can’t wait to see you back at school,'' wrote one person, Chris Godde. Another, Kate Metzdorf, wrote: “Being bullied can make you feel pretty sad and lonely, but if you didn’t know before, at least you now know that you have lots of family and friends who think you are pretty cool, so don’t ever let anyone let you think that they are better than you, because they are not.”

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