It's one thing to read statistics or opinions on blogs about kids killing themselves.
It's something altogether different when you put a face to the name and realize that yes, this is a real person who will never know love, will never have a career, will never get to have his or her own family, will never get to pet another cat or dog, will never see a sunrise, will never get to take state boards, will never get to meet a celebrity, will never give a surprise birthday party, will never open a Christmas present from someone special and will never eat an extra piece of red velvet cake even though they don't need it.
Here are the known LGBT suicides over the past few weeks. There are probably more. There will be more unless attitudes and policies in our country change.
13 year old Asher Brown of Cypress Texas shot himself in the head on Sept. 23, 2010 after enduring constant harassment at school according to his parents. Complaints to the school went unheard. He looks so happy in this picture.
Asher
13 year old Seth Walsh of Tehachapi California died on September 28 from injuries resulting from hanging himself from a tree on September 19. He was tormented and school officials would not address the problem.
Seth
15 year old Justin Aaberg of Anoka, Minnesota died on July 9, 2010 of hanging after being bullied at school.
Justin
He was an accomplished cello player. He wrote and played the background music in this memorial video for him.
At his high school 5 kids have killed themselves in the last year. Three of those are tied to sexual identity issues. That school chooses to "remain neutral" on the subject.
Raymond Chase was 19 years old and was a student at Johnson and Wales in Providence, Rhode Island. He hung himself in his dorm room. He had an interest in culinary arts, but will never get to use the skills he was developing.
Raymond
Tyler Clementi was a student at Rutgers and a 2010 Festival of Young Performers Scholarship recipient when he jumped from the George Washington Bridge into the Hudson River on September 22, after his roommate and another person broadcast webcam footage of Tyler in an intimate moment with another man. He was an intensely devoted musician who was described as sweet and shy.
Tyler
15 year old Billy Lucas of Greensburg, Indiana, hung himself in their barn on September 9 after enduring torment at a school that did nothing. He was called "fag" one too many times.
Billy
Billy loved horses. That he hung himself in the barn around the animals he loved is touching. I'm pretty sure he felt he was loved by his horses, I understand the human animal bond. He was surrounded by love. Here is Billy with one of his horses, Nic.
Billy and Nic
Hate messages have been left on his memorial page.
19 year old Aiyisha Hassan of Southern California took her life in her home on October 5. She was struggling with identity problems. She must have loved this little dog, speaking of the unconditional love our pets give us. They don't care if we're lesbian or gay, if we wear a dress, if we cut our hair in an odd way, if we sleep with a guy one week and a girl the next. Animals have a better outlook than many humans.
Aiyisha
Justin
Her mother was asked if it was hard to accept Chloe. "No, no. It's hard to accept that she is gone," she replied crying.
Chloe
Update: On the previous post I mentioned 19 year old Zach Harrington of Norman Oklahoma who killed himself a few days after attending a "toxic" city council meeting on September 28 where hateful individuals degraded the gay community. I watched a video of those proceedings. Part of what I heard was equal to what I and others have described as spiritual terrorism. I guess bullying occurs in places other than schools.
ZachWill my community of Bessemer do something to protect the kids in our schools before something tragic happens? Will our school board pass an inclusive anti-bullying policy? We will soon find out.
What about the school board in your community?
4 comments:
I agree 1000 % that bullying should be swiftly and sternly addressed in each and every school and all class levels not only as school policy but also within the juvenile court system with enormous fines levied against the parents of such juvenile delinquents who are proven guilty of this crime of harassment. I fail to see where this crime is isolated to the gay community however, It is prevalent amongst all children. I do support an all inclusive policy regardless to any categorization of children.
Thank you for this post Joe. It is heartbreaking to see the faces of these young people who had so much promise and are no longer here to contribute their special gifts to the world.
Bullying, whether at school, in the workplace or in any area of society, is wrong and there should be criminal consequences for those who terrorize other human beings.
As a group,gay people are probably the most bullied but no matter who is victimized, for whatever reason, all suffer from the actions of cruel cowards.
We must each, in our own sphere of influence, do whatever we can to insist that schools and employers are held responsible for acts of bullying that occur in those environments.
It is just incredible that school administrators cannot recognize these situations and do something to prevent this horrible, horrible result... racial bigotry is not put up with (thank god), why should this be?
This is just unbelievable, that schools cannot control this any more than they do. Test scores be damned. I think there ought to be something akin to the Hypocratic oath that school administrators have to take that involves first, letting no physical or emotional harm come to the student...
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