Two kids commit suicide after anti-gay bullying
The Advocate reports on two devastatingly sad stories:
The parents of Asher Brown, an eighth-grader who committed suicide last Thursday, say that their son killed himself in response to relentless antigay bullying at his Houston school.
According to the Houston Chronicle, the mother and stepfather of Brown said that constant harassment at Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District prompted their 13-year-old son to shoot himself in the head.
“Brown, his family said, was ‘bullied to death’ — picked on for his small size, his religion and because he did not wear designer clothes and shoes,” reported the Chronicle. “Kids also accused him of being gay, some of them performing mock gay acts on him in his physical education class, his mother and stepfather said.”
Grieving parents David and Amy Truong said that the school never responded to several complaints they made in the past 18 months. The school district said they never received any complaints from the parents, teachers or other students.
The Chronicle reported that the morning Brown died, he told his stepfather that he was gay. David Truong said he was OK with the revelation.
Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old from Tehachapi, Calif., is the latest youth reported to have taken his own life this month because of antigay bullying that went unaddressed at school.
According to KGET-TV, Walsh died Tuesday afternoon after spending nine days on life support after he hanged himself from a tree in his back yard.
Students acknowledged that Walsh was bullied over a long period of time for being gay, and they said that officials at Jacobsen Middle School did not intervene despite an antibullying program cited by school officials. Police said there would be no charges in the death of Walsh.
“Tehachapi police investigators interviewed some of the young people who taunted Seth the day he hanged himself and determined despite the tragic outcome of their ridicule, their actions do not constitute a crime,” reported KGET.
The parents of Asher Brown, an eighth-grader who committed suicide last Thursday, say that their son killed himself in response to relentless antigay bullying at his Houston school.According to the Houston Chronicle, the mother and stepfather of Brown said that constant harassment at Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District prompted their 13-year-old son to shoot himself in the head.
“Brown, his family said, was ‘bullied to death’ — picked on for his small size, his religion and because he did not wear designer clothes and shoes,” reported the Chronicle. “Kids also accused him of being gay, some of them performing mock gay acts on him in his physical education class, his mother and stepfather said.”
Grieving parents David and Amy Truong said that the school never responded to several complaints they made in the past 18 months. The school district said they never received any complaints from the parents, teachers or other students.
The Chronicle reported that the morning Brown died, he told his stepfather that he was gay. David Truong said he was OK with the revelation.
Seth Walsh, a 13-year-old from Tehachapi, Calif., is the latest youth reported to have taken his own life this month because of antigay bullying that went unaddressed at school.According to KGET-TV, Walsh died Tuesday afternoon after spending nine days on life support after he hanged himself from a tree in his back yard.
Students acknowledged that Walsh was bullied over a long period of time for being gay, and they said that officials at Jacobsen Middle School did not intervene despite an antibullying program cited by school officials. Police said there would be no charges in the death of Walsh.
“Tehachapi police investigators interviewed some of the young people who taunted Seth the day he hanged himself and determined despite the tragic outcome of their ridicule, their actions do not constitute a crime,” reported KGET.
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