(no subject)

[rm]

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/cnn-news/19141470/detail.html

BOSTON -- Sirdeaner Walker, 44, has been surrounded by family after discovering her son, Carl Walker-Hoover, 11, hanging by an extension cord in the third-floor landing of the family's Northampton Avenue home in Springfield.

Walker said her boy, upset yet again over another bullying episode at school, had committed suicide.

"They were always saying, 'you're gay, you must be gay, you act like a girl,'" said Walker.

Comments

[imaginarycircus.livejournal.com]

That is heartbreaking.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

ANd this is why I don't allow my kids to use "gay" in any negative sense at all.

Horrible.

[santousha.livejournal.com]

This is horrible.
When will people learn that words hurt.

[blackbird-song.livejournal.com]

Too fucking close to home.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

OMG. This is awful.

Christ, what a gorgeous looking kid. Look at him! :(

Awful, awful.

N.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

This is the sort of report that leaves me spluttering incoherently.

Where were that boys parents? Didn't they know how much turmoil he was in? Where the hell was the school administration? Why didn't they do more to protect their students. What were the bully's parents doing? Didn't they care that their kid was tormenting a classmate?

Too many people's apathy has lead to a confused and hurting young person ending his life because he couldn't take it any more. I hope something good can come out of this.

[rm.livejournal.com]

My experience, despite my parents witnessing my bullying, was to be asked what I had done to make people hate me.

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

I can't even... Poor child. Poor everyone.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

Seconded. Sigh.

[jkpolk.livejournal.com]

A couple of months ago one of my cousins unexpectedly killed himself. Nobody could figure out why and all his note said was "I'm sick of the lies".

There's speculation he was gay and felt he had to hide it, given a variety of factors.

And even the possibility of that made me so sad. Living in liberalville I find myself thinking we've reached a place where that doesn't happen anymore. The harrassment, the shame... But it's very jarring to see it's not true.

[nex0s.livejournal.com]

Did you read the article? The mother was talking to school administration for six months trying to get them to do something. I'm assuming she didn't have the resources to pull him out of there, as a single Mom.

So the question becomes not where were the boys parents, because the boys parents were trying to DO something. The question is : where were the administrators? Where were the teachers?

I have a hard time blaming the Mom who did her best, with no support.

N.

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

Oh God. I'm passing this on.

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

So the question becomes not where were the boys parents, because the boys parents were trying to DO something. The question is : where were the administrators? Where were the teachers?

Probably the same place the my elementary school teachers were when I was being tormented and hit in the 1970's: Joining in with the kids in their pecking order.

[chite.livejournal.com]

In my case, my parents did intervene, and the school intervened, and it got worse. It's almost like there's no way to win when you've become the target, except to brass it out and live through it.

Ironically, the person who bullied me the most in Junior High became an honest to goodness friend in high school. Life can be weird that way. I just wish someone could tell kids that it doesn't last forever.

[genmaicha.livejournal.com]

Thirded. Well-meaning mother asking, "What are you doing to these kids that makes them say and do these things to you?"

[1-mad-squirrel.livejournal.com]

I was told I needed "to learn to be 'street smart'" like my sister.

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

I left girl scouts because half the girls in the troop decided I was a convenient target. Luckily, it wasn't at my school, so I didn't have those girls after me there too.

My mom did her best to keep the girls in the troop from bugging me too much, but since she wasn't there to actually yell at them, there wasn't a lot else to do, (This was the late 1970s.) so she let me quit.

The next time I was seriously bullied in jr. high, I had enough friends/protectors (some of the tough girls liked me, so that kept me somewhat safe) that it didn't fly and those that were bullying me went and bothered someone else.

[newsbean.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I even had a little "behavior" report card that I had to have my teachers fill out every day. So that I would learn how not to be bullied.

This is not a joke. My parents sent *me* with a behavior report card. Despite the fact that I went to an incredibly small school (less than 50 kids) and they knew the parents of the actual perpetrators.

[redstapler.livejournal.com]

"You know, you're your own worst enemy" was an oft-repeated phrase my mother really liked.

[offbalance.livejournal.com]

Wow. Did this person ever explain to you why he/she felt it necessary to make your life hell? Did they apologize?

[ladyaelfwynn.livejournal.com]

I'm glad the mom was doing something; that doesn't leave the rest of the adults off the hook.

This is one of those reasons that mental health care needs to be included in health insurance and why we need decent, all inclusive health care easily accessible for all.

I really hope someone gets held accountable.

[eac.livejournal.com]

When I was bullied in school, I never divulged that to my parents. I somehow felt that the bullying belong to the world of children and that adults belonged to the world of adults.

It sounds as if this mother *was* trying to do something, though - she just wasn't able to get any traction.

I'm so sorry for this child -- and I hate that being perceived as gay is so damaging in this culture that a child might kill himself over it.

[cantkeepsilent.livejournal.com]

I can't help but think of the NOM commercial that made the rounds yesterday. You know, the one with the fictionally anguished woman saying "I am a Massachusetts parent helplessly watching public schools teach my son that gay marriage is okay." Were she to exist, I wonder if she would be relieved that the New Leadership Charter School in Springfield has a different message for their students.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Speaking as a parent, that is...so wrong I can't even describe it.

Meaning wrong in the sense of "what kind of parents are those that are doing that?" It's pretty much the antithesis of what parenting should be.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Damn. What a loss.