11-Year Old Commits Suicide Due to Bullies
April 15, 2009 by Eliza Ferree
Filed under Family, Parenting
My heart broke when my husband told me earlier that an 11-year-old boy committed suicide and was buried today. Why I asked him, even though part of me knew it must’ve been from a bully. Why else does an 11 year old do that these days? This is such a thing that should never happen and no parent should ever have to go through it.
According to this young boy’s mother, he was constantly getting picked on at school. Kids made fun of him, called him gay, said he acted like a girl. Eventually it took a toll, he didn’t want to deal with it any longer and took his own life. Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover was found hung by an electrical cord, his mom found him like this only moments before she was due to go to a meeting at the school over the bullies.
”They were always saying, ‘you’re gay, you must be gay, you act like a girl.”
There are no words I can say to ever make her feel better, this was her baby. I’m so sorry this has happened. I will also say, tonight readers check on yours (or tomorrow), find out how they are doing in school and see how the kids treat them. Start an open communication. Don’t forget to tell them how much you love them.
In the meantime, how do you deal with bullies? Has your child been a victim of a bully at school? Is there a way to end this?
My heart is aching! How sad!
This distressing situation in our schools Administrators have not taken the suject of bullying of our children seriouly. They tend to ignore the victim telling the victim they have to deal with it ,and or walk way dont put yourself in the situation to be bulling. Teacher ect. tend to blame the victim as if they deserve the bullying. I am sorry that the system failed this young man. I am he had alot to offer the world in a lesson of humanity. god bless his family
I was a victim of bullying throughout primary and secondary education until I changed schools… It is a sad world we live in when children as young as 11 take their own lives and it’s true, schools don’t do anything to help. Schools expect the pupil to come to them but why? Why would a pupil do that? Bullying destroys that confidence and even when they do report that they are bullying, which I did, the teachers do little.
If a child bullies another child to the point where the victim considers suicide then that bully should be removed from school, the parents should be penalised and their children must realise what they have done.
Today we live in a multi-cultural society of different race, subcultures and beliefs, we live in a society where children are less likely to take on hereditary jobs and will be more experimental because knowledge is so much greater… Almost every case I have read about has involved an intellectual child doing taking most saddening actions.
I’m 18 years old, and I am eternally scarred by bullying, when I was 13 I didn’t see myself alive by the age of 20- at the time I did have suicidal tendencies as well as being in a peer group who went through the same thing. Bullying destroys children and something, somewhere has gone horribly wrong. A child can’t just ‘walk away’ as teachers suggest, they cannot ‘ignore’ the words, the intimidation, the violence and suffering.
Bullies spoil good people like this child and millions worldwide, maybe my views are extreme but should these children who seek to bully be allowed into the main society while they do what they do? I don’t think so. To me bullying is no worse than murder, rape or any other chargeable offence- if anything it is worse as it is a widespread problem that is not treated in the proper manner.