Dad of bullied boy Keaton Jones reportedly is a convict with a white supremacist past

The father of bullied Tennessee schoolboy Keaton Jones has posted white supremacist messages on his social media pages in recent years, TMZ reports.

It’s just one more bizarre twist to a story that grabbed swift national attention over the weekend after Keaton’s mother posted a video showing him crying about being bullied at his school outside of Knoxville, Tenn.

Moved by Keaton’s tears, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Patton Oswalt and other celebrities, athletes, politicians and others across the country sent the boy messages of encouragement on social media.

Chris Evans, aka Captain America, invited Keaton to the premiere of next year’s “Avengers” sequel.

Then the story began taking a turn amid reports that the Facebook page of Keaton’s mom, Kimberly Jones, included “several photos of herself and friends displaying the Confederate flag” and a post that began “Dear butt hurt Americans” that TMZ reported was written after the unrest in Charlottesville, Va.

A backlash came swiftly. An emotional Jones appeared on CBS This Morning to explain that the photos were “the only two photos on the entire planet” where she is “near a Confederate Flag.”

She assured the CBS reporter that the photos did not have racist intent and said she’s been bullied because she wasn’t racist.

Now TMZ reports that it has found old social media pages belonging to Keaton’s estranged father, Shawn White, that feature white supremacist memes with sayings such as “HOLY F*** I LOVE BEING WHITE,” “Keep Calm and be White Pride,” and “Aryan Pride.”

The posts are from 2014, reports TMZ, which published a shirtless selfie of the 36-year-old White that shows him with a “Pure Breed” tattoo on his chest and a “White Pride” tat across his stomach.

The Daily Mail published a photo of White and three other men using a hand gesture reportedly connected to the Aryan Circle, a prison-based white supremacist gang.

TMZ reports that the last photos White posted of himself with Keaton and his sister are from January 2015. TMZ did not find any marriage records for White and Kimberly Jones, Keaton’s mother.

Court documents obtained by TMZ show White has been in Knox County Jail since May 2015 on a probation violation related to a 2012 aggravated assault conviction. He’s reportedly scheduled to get out next year.

Newsweek reports that arrest records indicate White was arrested in October 2012 for violations including harassment, aggravated assault, aggravated stalking and aggravated burglary. He was arrested again in October 2013 for aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, driving with a suspended license and evading arrest.

Jones spent Tuesday giving interviews after revelations about her social media past became public. Her Facebook page, where she first posted the video of Keaton, has since been scrubbed.

“I mean, you know, yesterday, he was a hero. Yesterday, the world loved us. Today, the world hates us,” she told Access Hollywood on Tuesday. “And I’m trying to think that I was trying not to get caught up in the positives. We’re not going to get caught up in the negatives.”

MMA fighter Joe Schilling was one of the first to publicly question Jones’ motives when he shared a conversation on Instagram he claimed to have had with Jones in which she allegedly told him: “This is a opportunity for my son. I’m poor not rich” and “what happened to us whites sticking together.”

Jones told Fox News Schilling’s account was not true.

“I did not tell him that I would rather have donations instead of the help from celebrities,” Fox News reports Jones said in an Instagram direct message.

A GoFundMe page set up on behalf of Jones by a man named Joseph Lam raised nearly $60,000 before donations were suspended.

According to Newsweek, Lam has decided to go ahead and donate $25,000 of the nearly $56,000 raised to a college fund for Keaton. He does not know Keaton or his family.

The remainder, he proposes, would go to other philanthropic causes. He mentioned two “recent suicides of kids that were bullied.”

“I know things have taken an unexpected turn here with this story but the cause is still the same,” Lam wrote on Tuesday. “This was about Bullying, specifically in this case, Keaton. Im working on a couple of things but will not move forward without approval from everyone. I think we can use this for some good.”

This story was originally published December 13, 2017 at 9:41 AM with the headline "Dad of bullied boy Keaton Jones reportedly is a convict with a white supremacist past."