10 Year Old Indiana Boy Victim of Bullying Commits Suicide

a reply to: FlyersFan

They should have taken him out of school and tried to homeschool him. If they needed to work , then find a way with other parents who want to homeschool but have to work. Form a private class , just for homeschooled kids , something.
School is reponsible for the bullying, as well as the bullies' parents.

I don't understand why the parent of the poor boy didn't do more to help him?

Cute kid. Tragic and totally a shame, reading of his loss.

That said, there is definitely more, likely much more, to this story we have not been appraised of (yet).

The manner of death is also relevant here because someone is not telling the full story. For example, could the death have been an accident, perhaps a role play gone wrong, AD of a firearm, sibling prank, or some other form of accident? Pretty unusual for a 10 year old to end his life intentionally. Not impossible, but unlikely from my perspective.

a reply to: ScarletDarkness

Agreed. This is also why I believe there is more to this story which needs to be understood prior to being able to form an opinion of what took place. There's a whole list of things which don't seem to add up, particularly the parents allegations of meeting with the school (which does not seem to be contested by the school), so there must be more to these discussions than just simple one-way bullying.

Unfortunately, parents need to take matters into their own hands sometimes. The schools will do nothing about it, all they want to do is cover their own ass. My daughter, also 10, was getting bullied by two girls. My wife spoke with the principal numerous times, and nothing changed.

My daughter came home crying one day, and I sat her down and told her to write down the names, first and last, when she got to school the next day. I found out where one of them lived, showed up, made a bunch of threats, he called the police, but they didn't arrest me or give me a citation, they just told me I needed to leave. His word against mine as far as the threats. I told him the next time my daughter comes home crying because of your kid, it'll become a problem between me and you. They left my daughter alone after that though. That was a couple months ago, and I haven't heard a peep, and my daughter is noticably happier.

a reply to: FlyersFan

originally posted by: Flyingclaydisk
That said, there is definitely more, likely much more, to this story we have not been appraised of (yet).

The manner of death is also relevant here because someone is not telling the full story. For example, could the death have been an accident, perhaps a role play gone wrong, AD of a firearm, sibling prank, or some other form of accident? Pretty unusual for a 10 year old to end his life intentionally. Not impossible, but unlikely from my perspective.

I am also a bit suspicious on this claim of suicide. We had the exact same thought so I just quoted you.

Moving on from pointing out that lack of information and the possibilities it entails, all I can say is they look like such a happy family. His smiles are genuinely happy in the pictures I see, and so are most of the kids from what I see. I seen fake smiles hiding depression, those images do not show that. perhaps he broke down closer to the end and it was more visible on his face, but that kid's smile is not one of deep pain and hidden sorrow like I see on so many adult women when I go grocery shopping or at the mall. I mean I don't really pay attention to kids much outside my own, so maybe they deal differently.

All I do know for sure is I would fight the parents of any kid bullying one of mine, but they have their own little gang and back each other up. Also, the kids in my city are not nearly as cruel as they used to be based on my experiences and what my kids share. Kind of gives me hope, but it comes with the trade-off of a more docile less combative youth, which become docile complacent non-confrontational adults.

In closing, I am suspicious of the stated COD of this beautiful little happy looking angel but still offer my prayers to the family and hope the siblings can recover from this loss.

I don't know how this information could be spread, but there is a lot that parents fail to teach their kids on how to deal with bullying. There are some that wind up solving the problem through a good hard retaliation after teaching some "moves", but there is a lot that can be done at the first encounter to resolve 80% or more of issues.

While it may be something funny looking or glasses or some stupid embarrassing thing that starts it, there are plenty of odd-looking, glasses-wearing unfortunate kids that not only don't get bullied, but thrive socially in spite of their "gifts". The most common issue is how the person reacts. If the bully gets no satisfaction, or even gets a good laugh, they move on. Self deprecating humor works wonders.

Got a funny name, come up with a good one-liner to give your child like, "Yeah, I know. I wish my dad was Spider Man, then my name would just be Mike Man"

Got a funny gimp walk, "I know right. It's like somebody else is driving. I'll try and be born better the next time I get a chance".



Anyway, you get the point. It takes some forethought and you have to own yourself, but this kind of reaction results in so much better outcome most of the time, even with kids being quite popular who you would think would have a real hard time. I am just not sure most parents even know about or even how to talk about the things their own kids can do on their end before turning it into something external that gets the wrong attention.

Sometimes there are just absolute rotten circumstances and some kid just has it out for another, but there are a lot of tools a kid can be given especially if the parent can preemptively come up with ideas. Once it's gone down the road of patterned bullying, it can be much harder to reset.

a reply to: Halfswede

this is actually top tier advice and recommend it myself!

a reply to: Halfswede

Learning to deal bullying will solve a large part of the problem. In the meantime this is just another traffic event.

I just read some tributes to this kid on X.

What a desperately sad, awful story.

That said, in my experience (in the UK) teachers are utterly useless at stopping bullying.

My stepson went through a phaze of getting bullied and it took me to threaten his head teacher with doing the same things to him before the school did anything about it. The guy completely couldn't see it as a problem until he was thinking about me doing the same stuff to him.

My younger ones, I brought them up to be almost feral in defence of each other so never had to worry about them in the same way.

That school deserves a lawsuit and the kids involved kicked out of school. And I'm sure several employees should be fired.

The parents of those kids that bullied him should be punished, too. That doesn't happen enough in this Society.

If this happened in Illinois, those kids could be charged under the Inciting to Suicide law.

If this was my kid they did this to, I'd be taking a baseball bat to some people.

a reply to: SprocketUK

Huge problem in the school systems is the 'boys will be boys' mentality.

Except many boys don't bully others. And of those who do, a Swedish study found something like 40% of them went on to become career criminals.

The brutal truth is the schools don't see it as a problem unless it turns into a lawsuit.

Cheers

Also, to those doubting a 10 year old would commit suicide, it is not like it was years ago. There was a recent study showing how much social media suicide content there was and they all, but tik tok in particular, have very popular and easy to get to suicide culture -- even showing live streams of suicides. It does seem odd that the siblings didn't get involved, but the mere fact he is 10 isn't far fetched anymore.

Even a happy kid can have really bad days, and in the right state and with the wrong encouragement, sad things can happen.

a reply to: FlyersFan


We are too connected these days. That should be a local news story at best. There is no reason people outside of that family or local community should know about this. Also, people have been getting bullied forever without killing themselves.

originally posted by: norhoc4
We are too connected these days. That should be a local news story at best. There is no reason people outside of that family or local community should know about this.

The family wanted to make the story public. They are engaged in a fight with the school over responsibility and are looking for support. They also wanted to bring awareness to the problem of bullying and suicide, perhaps get more done about it. If it helps the grieving family to take the story public, then why not?

a reply to: FlyersFan

I am just against everyone airing every aspect of their life out to the public via social media. It seems nothing is private anymore. They have every right to but I just think some things should stay private and local , not everything has to be a national news story.

This is a huge issue in schools, public, growing for the last few decades.

I cannot believe I am reading some of you blaming the parents. You were not in their shoes. IN this economy you cannot just quit your job and home school.

This child is a victim of the school system. 10 years old. If he was transgender the school would protect him. Or black. But he is a toe head white kid who does not need extra help because of his privilege, right?

I have multiple stories about what I stated above which is why my son just graduated HS at home. He could still play HS Sports and did, but he was not about to be subjected to the garbage that goes on.

My heart goes out to these parents. IF I was the father I would have already shot the person who allowed it to happen.

I know what its like!

But!
The schools Have to teach the next CEOs, the Bosses, government.
the kind of people who kill whistle blowers.
people that will Use you and not have Any compassion or empathy.

They Know its happening and USE it!
why do you think the world is the way it is?
"Schools!"

originally posted by: GotterDameron23
That school deserves a lawsuit and the kids involved kicked out of school. And I'm sure several employees should be fired.

The parents of those kids that bullied him should be punished, too. That doesn't happen enough in this Society.

If this happened in Illinois, those kids could be charged under the Inciting to Suicide law.

If this was my kid they did this to, I'd be taking a baseball bat to some people.

I'm with you on the baseball bat scenario... However, we don't yet know enough about what happened to know if bullying caused a suicide, or if the school knew it was anything other than picking on him about his teeth and glasses, etc.

For my part, I will say again; before we get out the pitchforks, torches and turn the lynch mob loose, I think a little more information about what actually happened is important. Not defending or accusing anyone of anything at this point, but this tragic case is definitely in need of attention.