Tag: bullying
Texas teen shot dead by bully two days after defending a younger boy
A Texas teenager who defended a younger boy from getting attacked was allegedly shot dead by the infuriated bully just two days later, according to reports.
Brave Samuel Reynolds, 16, had stepped in to protect a 15-year-old from being assaulted by another boy in Arlington early last week, police told NBC News Dallas Fort-Worth.
“After he broke up the fight, he started having trouble with the suspect,” Arlington Police Lt. Christopher Cook told the station.
On Thursday — just two days after the confrontation — Reynolds was gunned down in a communal area of his apartment complex.
A boy aged between 13 and 15 who lives in the same complex was arrested, and police say he was the same boy Reynolds had earlier confronted, according to NBC.
He is not being identified because of his age, the reports say.
The suspect initially denied involvement in the shooting, but security camera footage showed the killing, cops told NBC.
“He pulls out a handgun from the rear part of his pants he was wearing, points it at the victim and fires one round,” Cook told NBC, saying they found a shell casing from a .40 caliber semi-automatic handgun.
The teen faces a murder charge and has been transported to a juvenile detention center, but it remains unclear whether he will be tried as an adult or child, NBC said.
“This senseless act of gun violence has no place in society and our hometown community,” Arlington police chief Will Johnson said on Twitter.
Calling it “an emotionally tough case” for responding officers, he said: “We will direct our attention to how a young teen suspect accessed a firearm used in the offense.”
Students and teachers gathered at Arlington High School on Friday for a candlelight vigil to remember their former pupil. The suspect was in the same school district but not in the high school, officials said.
“We are heartbroken by this tragic loss of a young life,” principal Shahveer Dhalla said of Reynolds.
“He touched the lives of many of our Arlington students and teachers, and he will be missed. We are keeping our thoughts and prayers with Sam’s family and friends.”
Photo Credit: nypost.com
13-year-old boy kills himself after school allegedly ignores bullying
An eighth-grade student in Michigan reportedly took his own life after he faced relentless bullying on his school bus.
Michael Martin, 13, died Jan. 25 at Sparrow Hospital two days after he attempted suicide at his Lansing home, the Lansing State Journal reported.
His mother, Joanna Wohlfert, said the teen was teased about his weight and braces on the school bus in the months prior to his death.
He often skipped class at Everett High School to avoid the bullies, which led to his grades slipping, she said.
Wohlfert said the school district and bus company failed to investigate the issue after she repeatedly reached out to them.
“He was going through a dark time and nobody cared,” his mom told the newspaper. “Nobody paid attention to him.”
In emails provided to the newspaper, Wohlfer pleads with faculty and administrators to address the bullying.
“I AM ASKING FOR ANY HELP I CAN GET,” she wrote to a school counselor in a Jan. 8 email.
School officials released a statement Monday confirming authorities are investigating the teen’s suicide.
“The Lansing School District is engaged in a comprehensive and on-going investigation and is working closely with the Lansing Police Department,” the district said.
“It is the policy and practice of the district to not comment or share any details pertaining to the investigation while it is on-going.”
via: https://nypost.com/2019/02/05/13-year-old-boy-kills-himself-after-school-allegedly-ignores-bullying/
9-year-old kills self after racist taunts from class
A black 9-year-old girl in Alabama allegedly took her own life after facing relentless bullying and racism in class, according to reports.
McKenzie Adams’ relatives said she hanged herself Dec. 3 in her home in Linden, about 100 miles west of Montgomery, and was discovered by her grandmother, according to the Tuscaloosa News.
Since the start of the school year, the fourth-grader had been the target of bullying at US Jones Elementary School, where she was teased over her friendship with a white male classmate, according to her family.
Her aunt, Eddwina Harris, said the group of students taunted McKenzie by telling her to commit suicide.
“She was being bullied the entire school year, with words such as ‘kill yourself,’ ‘you think you’re white because you ride with that white boy,’ ‘you ugly,’ ‘black bitch,’ ‘just die,’” Harris told the newspaper.
Harris said she’s speaking out about her niece’s death because she wants to promote anti-bullying.
“There are so many voiceless kids,” Harris said. “God is opening great doors for justice for my niece.”
Bullied boy called ‘ugly’ has Snoop Dogg, Dale Earnhardt Jr and other celebrities rallying behind him
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A Tennessee woman’s video of her tearful son recounting being bullied at middle school has prompted a wave of support from athletes and entertainers.
Kimberly Jones said in a Facebook post Friday she had just picked up her son, Keaton, from school because he was too afraid to go to lunch.
In the video, Keaton said other students call him ugly, make fun of his nose and tell him he has no friends. He said milk was poured on him and ham was put down his clothes.
“People that are different don’t need to be criticized about it. It’s not their fault. If you are made fun of, just don’t let it bother you.”
The video had more than 18 million views as of Sunday, and a crowdsourcing page for Keaton’s future education had raised more than $29,000.
“We all know how it feels to want to belong,” Jones said in her post, “but only a select few know how it really feels not to belong anywhere.”
On Twitter, Tennessee Titans tight end Delanie Walker invited the Jones family to an upcoming game, while University of Tennessee wide receiver Tyler Byrd said he and several teammates plan to visit Keaton at school.
Country music star Kelsea Ballerini tweeted that the next time she comes home to her native Knoxville, she wants to be with Keaton to witness the bullies apologize.
Retired race car driver Dale Earnhardt Jr. said on Twitter he wants Keaton to “add me to your long list of friends,” and Snoop Dogg said on Instagram that Keaton “has a friend for life” and that “love is the only way to beat hate.”
via: https://nypost.com/2017/12/10/bullied-boy-called-ugly-has-celebrities-rallying-behind-him/
Bullies turn on parents after teen daughter attempts suicide – start bullying the parents
When 13-year-old Rosalie Avila attempted suicide after constant bullying, her parents thought they’d seen the worst — until they started getting bullied themselves.
Charlene and Freddie Avila from Loma Linda, California, found their daughter hanging in her bedroom last week with a suicide note saying she was “sorry,” reports said. Rosalie had been bullied repeatedly for years and the pain finally became too much to handle, CBS Los Angeles reported.
“They told me I was ugly today,” father Freddie recalled reading from Rosalie’s journal, according to the outlet.
“They were making fun of me today about my teeth,” the distraught father went on.
Rosalie’s parents rushed her to a local hospital, where she’s been on a ventilator ever since. They plan to take her off Monday night and donate her organs.
As if losing their daughter from bullying wasn’t enough pain to handle, the parents started getting bullied after the attempted suicide.
The parents received a meme on social media with Rosalie’s face that read “hey mom. Next time don’t tuck me in this,” next to a made bed, Rosalie’s smiling face to the right. Right underneath, the meme reads “Tuck me in THIS,” next to an open grave with Rosalie’s face photoshopped onto a boy’s body, which is pointing at the open grave.
Mom Charlene called the bullies “heartless.”
“For you to do that, I mean, you’re heartless … you have no compassion.”
Father Freddie said he gave his daughter’s journal to the police but that the school hasn’t done enough to prevent tragedies like these.
“I did everything I’m supposed to do as a father, and these people did not respond, because those bullies are still at the school,” Freddie said.
“They’re still there, and my daughter’s gone.”
via: https://nypost.com/2017/12/04/bullies-turn-on-parents-after-teen-daughter-attempts-suicide/
Bullied 10-year-old girl hangs herself
A 10-year-old Colorado girl died of an apparent suicide — two weeks after she hanged herself when video surfaced on social media of the pre-teen fighting an alleged bully, according to a local report. Ashawnty Davis, an aspiring WNBA player and a fifth-grader at Sunrise Elementary School in Aurora, got into her “first-ever fight” on school property at the end of October, her parents told local news station KDVR.
Another student captured the fight on video and posted it on an app called Musical.ly, her father, Anthony Davis, told the station.
“She was devastated when she found out that it had made it to Musical.ly,” Davis said.
Once the video was posted, Ashawnty was relentlessly bullied until she reached her breaking point, her parents told the station.
“My daughter came home two weeks later and hanged herself in the closet,” said her mother, Latoshia Harris.
She spent another two weeks on life support at Children’s Hospital in Colorado before dying Wednesday morning.
Her parents believe that Ashawty was a victim of “bullycide” — when someone takes his or her life because of bullying, according to the report. They hope her story could help save other young victims’ lives.
“I want other parents to know that it’s happening,” Harris told the station. “That was my baby and I love my baby and I just want mothers to listen.”
In a statement issued to the station, the Cherry Creek School District said that it does not tolerate bullying in its schools, and has a “comprehensive bullying prevention program” in place.
“We were made aware of that video when a media outlet approached us with it,” the statement continued. “We took immediate action in response, turning the video over to police and addressing the matter with students.”
The fight did not take place during school hours, the district said.
via: https://nypost.com/2017/12/01/bullied-10-year-old-girl-hangs-herself/
Biracial 8-year-old boy nearly hanged by teens, family says
Teenagers in New Hampshire taunted an 8-year-old biracial boy with racial slurs and then pushed him off of a picnic table with a rope around his neck, injuring him, the boy’s family said.
The child was treated at a hospital for cuts to his neck following the near-hanging Aug. 28 in Claremont, the boy’s grandmother, Lorrie Slattery, told the Valley News. He has since been released and has returned to school in Claremont.
Slattery said the children were in a backyard when some of the teens got on the table and grabbed a rope that held a tire swing. It’s not clear how the rope got around her grandson’s neck, but Slattery said the teens pushed him off the table. No adults are believed to have witnessed the incident.
An expert on abuse who spoke to the boy at the hospital said he swung from his neck three times before being able to remove the rope, Slattery said. None of the teens came to his aid, she said.
“One boy said … ‘Let’s do this,’ and then pushed him off the picnic table and hung him,” Slattery said.
Claremont Police Chief Mark Chase told the newspaper his department is investigating an Aug. 28 incident involving several juveniles. He declined to provide details and refused to confirm the case involved the 8-year-old boy.
Chase did not respond Monday to calls and emails from The Associated Press.
via: http://abc7chicago.com/biracial-boy-8-nearly-hanged-by-teens-family-says/2408200/
BOY, 8, BULLIED AT SCHOOL DAYS BEFORE KILLING HIMSELF
The 8-year-old hanged himself with a necktie in the bedroom of his Cincinnati home on Jan. 26. School officials called the boy’s mother the day her son was bullied and said he had fainted, attorney Carla Leader told The Associated Press.
“They didn’t tell her the whole story,” Leader said. “The school also said his vitals were fine and he was alert.”
The mother learned of the bullying and the surveillance video after her attorneys obtained a Cincinnati police investigative file over her son’s death. The file included a copy of a Feb. 3 email from a homicide detective to an assistant principal at Carson Elementary School and other Cincinnati school officials describing what he saw on the video obtained from the school district’s security department.
Cincinnati Public Schools, in a statement issued Thursday, did not address the allegation that officials at the elementary school didn’t tell the boy’s mother what had happened. School district spokeswoman Janet Walsh said the detective “mischaracterized the events in the video,” the existence of which was first reported by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Leader said she watched the surveillance video and that it shows another boy acting aggressively toward students. When the 8-year-old approached him and tried to shake his hand, the boy threw him against the wall, knocking him unconscious, Leader said.
Other students stepped over the boy while others poked him with their feet as he lay unconscious for 7 minutes before an assistant principal and then a school nurse came to his aid, Leader said. The mother came to get the 8-year-old after the school called her.
The mother took him to a hospital that evening after the boy vomited and complained of stomach pains. Doctors said he had a stomach virus and sent him home. Neither doctors nor the boy’s mother knew what had happened earlier that day, her attorneys said.
The ages of the other children involved or present at the attack were not immediately available. The elementary school’s website shows that it serves children from prekindergarten through the sixth grade and has 750 students.
The Cincinnati Public School statement provides a different version of events. It says that “while we are concerned about the length of time that (the boy) lay motionless and the lack of adult supervision at the scene,” school administrators followed protocol by having the nurse evaluate him. The boy’s mother was asked to pick him up and take him to a hospital “to be checked out,” the statement said.
The mother’s attorneys said her sister, who was caring for the boy while she was at work that night, called to tell her the boy had been vomiting.
Leader described the boy as a “happy-go-lucky kid” who had shown no signs of mental issues. Leader said the boy came home from school on Jan. 26, spoke with his mother and went into his bedroom. She later discovered him hanging from his bunk bed.
The email from the homicide detective, which was shared with The Associated Press, describes what he saw in the surveillance video. The detective said it appeared that the “primary agitator” hit one child in the stomach, sending him to the floor on hands and knees. The 8-year-old then approached the aggressor and tried to shake his hand but was pulled to the floor, the detective wrote.
The aggressor “appears to celebrate and rejoice in his behavior as (the boy) lay motionless. For many minutes, many students step over, point, mock, nudge, kick” the boy, the email said.
The detective told school officials that while he had concerns about the bullying, which could be considered a criminal assault, he added that the school would be better suited to handle the situation because of the children’s ages.
Meanwhile, the coroner has reopened its investigation into the boy’s suicide, and his school district is expected to release video showing the incident.
A Hamilton County coroner’s office spokesman said Friday that new evidence has prompted the reopening of the case, but he wouldn’t say what that evidence is.
A Cincinnati schools spokeswoman says the video might be released Friday.