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11-Year-Old Commits Suicide Over Anti-Gay Bullying
The recent 'bullycide' deaths of Eric Mohat and Carl Walker-Hoover certainly weren't the first, and won't likely be the last, but I didn't expect to read this story about Jaheem Herrera, which is similar in almost every aspect to Walker-Hoover's, just one week later.
And like Walker-Hoover's, it includes a school tone-deaf to a mother's concerns, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports:
"On Thursday afternoon, after returning home from Dunaire Elementary School, Jaheem quietly went into his room and hanged himself. His 10-year-old sister, Yerralis, also a fifth-grader, discovered Jaheem’s dead body. 'His sister was screaming, ‘Get him down, get him down,’' said Norman Keene, who helped raise Jaheem since the boy was two years old. When Keene got to the room, he saw Yerralis holding her brother, trying to remove the pressure of the noose her brother had fashioned with a fabric belt. Jaheem was bullied relentlessly, his family said. Keene said the family knew the boy was a target, but until his death they didn’t understand the scope. 'We’d ask him, ‘Jaheem, what’s wrong with you?’' Keene recalled. 'He’d never tell us.' He didn’t want his sister to tell, either. She witnessed much of the bullying, and many times rose to her brother’s defense, Keene said. 'They called him gay and a snitch,' his stepfather said. 'All the time they’d call him this.' In an interview with WSB-TV, the boy’s mother, Masika Bermudez, also said her son was being bullied at school. She said she had complained to the school. She said she asked him about the bullying Thursday when he came home from school and he denied it. She sent him to his room to calm down. It was the last time she would see him alive."
Not to make light of this boy's death, but hopefully the bullies (as young as they may be) can actually understand the gravity of this and use it to find it in their hearts to change their ways.
We definitely need to get over the idea that "kids will be kids" and that they should toughen up or whatnot. I've seen people say that kids should just learn to deal with bullies, but I say if someone is a bully they shoudln't be allowed to mix with the other kids and should be kicked out of school. Yes, I take a hard line with that sort of thing becasue they are only going to grow up to be arsehole adults.
The sad thing is, these kids never identified themselves as gay. There were too young to develop that concept and identity. It was simply their mannerisms and subtle behavioural differences. God forbid the education system provides sensitivity training on the subject. I mean parents are doing such a wonderful job of teaching kids not to hate (ROLLING EYES)
afoig I saw this type of bullying when I went to school over two decades ago but to the level it has gotten now where kids are taking their own lives is beyong absurd. I was actually looking for a report on CNN where a 11 year old black kid was bullyied because they kept taunting him for acting gay ,whatever that means! He hung himself too and people are upset with tolerance classes in kindergarden?
afoig I saw this type of bullying when I went to school over two decades ago but to the level it has gotten now where kids are taking their own lives is beyong absurd. I was actually looking for a report on CNN where a 11 year old black kid was bullyied because they kept taunting him for acting gay ,whatever that means! He hung himself too and people are upset with tolerance classes in kindergarden?
Yup. It's almost like some people actually want these suicides to happen regularly.
Maybe the bullies should be charged with something like criminally negligent homicide. It would be a tough, tough case to make but it would send a loud, clear message.
Kids have been teased forever. Fat kids, skinny kids, slow kids, poor kids, kids with weird names, the list goes on and on. Some from each of these groups have committed suicide. Being teased because you are gay is no more serious then being teased because of any of the issues listed above. A child that resorts to suicide has emotional problems to begin with or maybe an unstable home. It is a tragedy when anyone takes their own life
Kids have been teased forever. Fat kids, skinny kids, slow kids, poor kids, kids with weird names, the list goes on and on. Some from each of these groups have committed suicide. Being teased because you are gay is no more serious then being teased because of any of the issues listed above. A child that resorts to suicide has emotional problems to begin with or maybe an unstable home. It is a tragedy when anyone takes their own life
Agreed but if kids rc'v sensitivity training on any of the subjects you listed, there would be NO controversy. As soon as the term gay comes up, there is parental uproar and resistance and the homosexual agenda is now in play.
Agreed but if kids rc'v sensitivity training on any of the subjects you listed, there would be NO controversy. As soon as the term gay comes up, there is parental uproar and resistance and the homosexual agenda is now in play.
Of course parents should resist introducing their children to gay issues. Bullying needs to be the issue, whatever the target. It is usually the overweight children that has suffered the worse and the longest. If a particular issue is the be raised, it should be that one.
Of course parents should resist introducing their children to gay issues. Bullying needs to be the issue, whatever the target. It is usually the overweight children that has suffered the worse and the longest. If a particular issue is the be raised, it should be that one.
what about putting a name and a face to all of these issues? If you don't identify the groups targetted when it comes to bullying, how are you addressing the issue? After all, in these cases the bullies already knew the term f*g and homo - so they've already been introduced, albeit in a hateful way.
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