On Wednesday, police in Detroit discovered the body of a 7-year-old boy who had apparently killed himself after being bullied and harassed by students at his school.
The boy, who is not being named, hung himself with a belt from his bunk bed while his 14-year-old sister watched helplessly through the locked door’s keyhole.
While there’s no indication he was gay, it does appear he was bullied in part because of his perceived sexual orientation.
The boy’s mother told authorities her son “had been depressed due to her recent separation from his father; the fact that he had been bullied continuously by the children at school, in addition to the constant teasing that he had endured because he was the only boy in the home of eight females.”
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Mark
My heart goes out to this family. I cannot imagine. I hope the parents of the children who bullied him are having a long and hard conversation with their children but then again, that may be asking too much.
Charli
I’m so freaking tired of this shit! These freaking right wings
might as well just go ahead and plead guilty to these crimes!!!
That freaking macho str8 attitude is where this stems from!
These young children do not see nor hear anything but the freaking
” better than thou macho rhetoric shit” and when they are not born
like that they think of the only escape!
I’m so freaking angry! So tired of these kids dieing!
There u go North Carolina pastor peices of shit!
Just start the body count of you actions , u sick S.O.B’S
jennifer
I was bullied all through my School life, mostly for being poor but it got much worse when they started noticing that the only people I ever drew pictures of were women. I had no idea what to do, I never told anyone because they did not support the Gay community. My Schooling suffored because the only way out was my Art, all through High School I switched between dating men and women, confused, depressed and angry. I never finished High School. Now no one will hire me, I can’t afford to take the GED, so I rely 100% on my….I have no idea what to call him, technically he is my husband but he wants to be my wife…but with limited income and 2 kids that’s out of the question. I am deticating my life to the fight to stop bullying and to Equal Rights, no life should be cut short due to the harsh words of another.
Kareem
This seriously can’t keep happining people need to learn how to teach thire children the rights and wrongs of bulling Not to tarnish this litt boys memory but I hope those children never forget what they caused cause if I knew you they were I would never let them forget
miKem
While I am very saddened by this horrible loss of a child, I have to ask myself, “Why is a 14 year old sister the only “adult” supervision.
Bobbie Jo Justice
Charge the bullies with FIRST DEGREE MURDER
I am tired of this bullsh**.
It is time to start killing the bullies.
Vanessa Emma Goldman
my heart aches for this poor little child. may his soul rest in peace, and may Goddess give him the comfort he could not find in this cruel world. i was a bullying victim just like him and every time i hear one of these stories, i feel lucky that i did not end up doing what he did. the bullying has to stop, now.
David
Bobby Jo Justice, do you really want to charge 7 old kids with first degree murder? Do you *really* think that that will solve the problem?
1equalityUSA
Romney likens his bullying to a, “prank.” Until bullying is no longer diminished like this, we will inherit untimely, profoundly regrettable suicides. From the pulpits to the presidency, the word needs to get out, bullying is more than a prank.
ScaryRussianHeather
@Mark:
“in addition to the constant teasing that he had endured because he was the only boy in the home of eight females.”
And that would include his own family. So many effed up families, it’s pathetic.
ScaryRussianHeather
@jennifer:
jennifer, girl. Dedicate your life to you and your own family first. If you can get the GED prep books, used, evaluate if you can do the work, if not contact your community college for guidance Some states have FREE adult learning centers. Even have your family help you learn if necessary. If your kids are school age do the homework with them and try to learn that way to whatever level you are at.
If you can feel you’re ready to take one or more of the GED’s I would be happy to pay for them. As I’m sure many posters here would. You can DM me on Twitter _swarm and I’d pay the testing center anonymously (so to speak).
Here’s an example of free learning in No Dakota – first one that came up on google http://www.dpi.state.nd.us/adulted/ged/faq.shtm
Loren
Perhaps we need to drop the word bullying and use the real words for what is going on…ASSAULT and HARRASEMENT…and charge the bullies accordingly. The damage done by these people is so real. I remember my days in school, I was in survival mode all the time, my studies and grades suffered. I did survive and in college away from these horrible people my GPA went up 2 full points, school was fun. Consider the tremendous loss, not just in lives but in the productivity and achievements by those who are bullied.
Somehow the message needs to get to the real perpetrators. These kids are almost the innocents, bullying is often generational being created by the adults and picked up by the kids. The hate messages being spewed by pastors, legislators, parents, and other adults is what keeps these torturous actions alive.
Alexi3
I don’t even know where to begin to express the rage I feel about what happened to this child. This has got to stop. I keep waiting and waiting for responsible Evangelical Leaders to step up and state in clear unambiguous terms that the hate filled speeches of many of their fellow evangelical pastors is incompatible with Christian Doctrine and remind them of Christ’s warning to anyone who would harm a child; He warned them that it would have been better if they had never been born. These “Christians” are culpable. Both those that spew hate into their churches and into the airwaves and those who fail to condemn it. They are all equally guilty. and Mitt Romney what have you to say? still believe what you did was a prank? still proud that you went to Jerry Falwell’s monument to himself, Liberty University, to give the commencement address? The Conservative Movement has unleashed this wave of hate on the land and children are killing themselves as a direct result of the Right Wing’s desire to win an election and damn the cost. Well, the cost is too fucking high. And, by the way, what do the Log Cabin traitors have to say about all this? Still believe it is a defensible position to hold to be both Gay and Republican?
D9W
It going to take suing the heck out of people like Tony Perkins to get the right wing to stop this crap
Cam
“”While there’s no indication he was gay, it does appear he was bullied in part because of his perceived sexual orientation.””
_______________________-
Could we please stop acting like it is the 1950’s and putting in sentences like “While there’s no indicating he was gay” as if we are trying to protect the family from some dirty shameful secret?
Eric
@David: Don’t charge the 7 year kids. Charge the parents!
justice
@Charli:
Wow, So offer us the alternative, obviously us Christians have it wrong. We’ll let you lead by your thoughts, words and kind actions. Oh! I see you’ve already shared you’re thoughts and words on this matter, I pray your actions don’t follow.
dpj
“While there’s no indication he was gay, it does appear he was bullied in part because of his perceived sexual orientation”. If leftists are going to gather sympathy from the rest of us they should avoid cheap mischief. I would like to know how the writer magically came to the conclusion that it’s partly because he was gay that he was bullied when no investigation from the police or anyone knowledgeable about the situation points to this? Stop twisting the facts to arrive at a predetermined conclusion.
MikeE
could we please also learn to use the right word: hanged, not hung. the child was not a painting put up on a wall. he hanged himself.
Aussie Col
All children when babies get on. It’s only when they learn the hate from the right wing anti Jesus rhetoric spewed from the evil mouths of monsters like Charles Worley, Mitt Romney, Tony Perkins, the Bachmanns, their parents and the other anti gay political opportunists, that other kids feel enabled to bully their peers.
Bullying is a hate crime, hate is learned and is a choice. Hate for gay kids (not saying this boy is gay; his ‘crime ‘was being perceived as gay) is based on false Bible passages, that ignore Jesus’commandment of love, His teaching that only God can judge, His reinforcement of the Golden Rule. For the non-religious, homophobes have long been outed by scientific research that proves they are just self loathing closet cases, pointing the finger at others to hide their own shame. The political and religious landscapes are littered with examples.
And for DPJ…no matter what the outcome, bullying is grotesque, and apologists for it are evil. Stop muddying the waters with your leftist sympathies crack, you dick. A kid is dead and he was bullied. But we know where your sympathies lay.
Sue the crap out of the school and the parents; put the kids in JH, and make the whole damn ugly families see what the grief their actions cause by meeting the bereaved families.
Thank God for Obama setting fire to the grass, so we could see the snakes come crawling out.
Bobbie Jo Justice
@David:
in this case, maybe you charge the parents of the bullies with first degree murder, and ys, I think it is time that we took a VERY HARD STANCE against bullying in this country.
Start executing the bullies, and I blame the so-called “christian” church for most of the bullying in this country, perhaps we need to start charging some of these preachers with first degree murder too. NO TRIAL.
Bobbie Jo Justice
@1equalityUSA:
right, bullying is harassment at “best”, and FIRST DEGREE MURDER in cases like this one.
Muffin6butt
@Bobbie Jo Justice:
I’m with you, Romney has Mormon blood on his grubby little Morman hands for the death of this child.
Bulling and hate crimes need to be enforced by the Obama Justice Department. Eric Hold needs to step up on these case and file federal charges when hate and bulling brings death.
Jennifer Pekrul
WOW. You guys in the comment section are ASSHOLES. Violence begats more violence, I do agree however that the parents of bullies should be held accountable. I am CHRISTIAN and Gay, you assholes are bullying me. FUCK YOU.
kae
oh dear god. I am lost for words. When a 7 year old boy can even concieve of suicide, let alone carry it out, something is very, very, very wrong with your society.
Jane
My heart goes out to this boy and his family…this is just tragic. SEVEN. YEARS. OLD. And he killed himself.
I don’t blame the sister whatsoever, but I have to wonder why she was never taught how to unlock a door with a nail file or a bobby pin or SOMETHING.
Heartbreaking story.
RIP darling boy.
Stewie
The sad thing is at 7 years old, a lot of kids don’t fully understand what death is (I know I personally didn’t until the Princess Di tragedy).
@Jennifer Pekrul: well excuse us, but this is what constitutes my exposure to religious people: ex-gay camps, the Ugandan “kill the gays” bill, Fred Phelps and his clan, the guy who stood outside of our local Pride waving a Bible telling us we were all going to hell, hearing that 40% of the homeless population are LGBT kids whose religious parents kicked them out, Middle Eastern gays being sentenced to death, bills that ban gays from having basic rights being supported by religious organizations, politicians quoting ‘christian values’ as they continue to campaign on a platform of bigotry, christian colleges persecuting their gay students and forbidding them from creating gay-straight alliances, gay kids committing suicide because they’re overwelmed by religious based guilt, and preachers who say that gay men need to be put behind an electrified fence and hanged.
Am I angry and bitter about religon because of all this? HELL YEAH. Can you blame me for this? Only if you don’t watch the news…
Jennifer Pekrul
@Stewie: So you’re making excuses for being a bully? And yes, I can blame you for thinking that the News is accurate to depict a large populous of people. Most people on the News who commit crimes are colored, does that mean colored people in general are bad people? Great job sticking up for the same kind of behavior that makes it hard for us to be ourselves without someone thinking we all have AIDS.
Stewie
@Jennifer Pekrul: I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about. I grew up in the Jehovah’s Witnesses from age 6 to 14. I have friends who have been through ex-gay camp and gay exorcisms. I have had lousy experience after lousy experience with religious people, and you bullying me on a website is just one more nail in the coffin.
Justin
I think it’s time for more civil litigation. I would love nothing more than to see the family of this boy sue the parents of those bullies into abject poverty where they have to resort to eating at soup kitchens and living in their cars (prior to them being repossessed).
We’ve tried the “Tell the bully how you feel” Kumbaya bullshit. It doesn’t work. Fuck them. Take their college funds and summer vacations and teach them a lesson.
Aussie Col
@Justin: Agree totally. But sue the school as well. LOL Kumbaya BS Hahaha.
B
No. 5 · miKem wrote, ‘While I am very saddened by this horrible loss of a child, I have to ask myself, “Why is a 14 year old sister the only “adult” supervision.’
The mother was there too.
… the article Queerty linked to – http://www.freep.com/article/20120524/NEWS01/120524018/7-year-old-Detroit-boy-dead-suicide-hanging-Godbee?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE – stated, “Police said the family told them the boy locked himself in his room and his 14-year-old sister, peering through the keyhole in the door, saw him hanging, alerted her mother and called 911. His mother told police that she forced her way into his room by removing the doorknob, grabbed her son and held him up “to relieve the stress of his body weight,” while a neighbor removed the belt from around his neck, according to the report.”
So, what it sounds like happened is that the 14 year old was the first to see what was happening and told her mother, who then told the 14 year old to call 911 and find a neighbor to help while she (the mother) tried to get into the room. That’s perfectly sensible – a 14 year old can manage a phone call, and the sooner you get an adult into the room, the better.
The only odd thing about the story is that internal doors typically have a small hole in the doorknob and if you stick something that fits into it (e.g., a coat hanger) and push, that will disengage the lock. Possibly nothing that would allow this standard procedure to be used was available.
MinaAnne
@miKem: I’m sure his parents were just out… Siblings babysit other siblings all the time.
MinaAnne
@MinaAnne: Well, I just read another article about it, and his mother was actually there…
Anyways…
!what the F**K!!!!
@Jennifer Pekrul: Ummm-I’m presuming you are white -because the word coloured is often viewed as pejorative by black people and I’m quite sure mexicans aren’t that fond of it either.Would you care to clarify?@Stewie: Stewie -sorry to hear you’ve had a succession of shit-just realise that even when you think someones picking at you on here these are all just anonymous words on a screen and you’ll find that some of em are written to offload someone else’s shitty day onto you-F**k em.Especially when the words are from someone who didn’t actually read your post properly.
!what the F**K!!!!
@!what the F**K!!!!: OH ! and as BUDDHA once said- F**K RELIGION (I’m paraphrasing..but ya get the drift!)
Bailey
are these religious arguments really necessary? No matter what your religion, the fact that a SEVEN YEAR OLD committed suicide shouold be an eye opener to how bad bullying has gotten! He’s seven and was bullied for being ‘gay’? At seven, i’m pretty sure i thought boys had cooties. I don’t know how seven year olds could think another person their age was gay. I don’t think I even knew what gay meant! Either way, something needs to be done about the bullying in schools. It’s out of hand.
Bobbie Jo Justice
I want to see so-called religious people quit promoting hate.
some “christians” are the most vile and disgusting pieces of filth around.
NEWSFLASH FOR PEOPLE WHO “CLAIM TO BE CHRISTIAN” —BEING GAY IS NOT A SIN….and I want to know when these “christians” are going to start obeying their babble, er, bible and MURDER everyone who works on the sabbath. Why are christians such hypocrites?
BEING GAY, LESBIAN, BISEXUAL OR TRANSGENDER IS NOT A CHOICE, BUT BEING A HATE-FILLED, HOMOPHOBIC, TRANSPHOBIC “SO-CALLED CHRISTIAN” CERTAINLY IS.
Vickee
Where in the article did you get anything about the boy being called gay??? It says he was teased for being the only boy in a house of 8 females but nothing at all about being gay! Nor does it say that anyone anywhere called him a sinner or even thought about anything religious unless you are referring to the mother talking to her pastor. I have no idea how you managed to turn this from a tragic little boy’s suicidal death into a rant against religion! This article and several others that I have read say that the boy was depressed over his mother and father’s separation and that he got teased for living in a houseful of girls…….he was 7 for pity sake, that chip on your shoulder blinds you.
Vickee
@B: typically they do, but …..mine doesn’t…..sooo