7-year-old's suicide shocks Detroit community

Originally posted by OhZone
There has always been bullying.
But kids didn't commit suicide over it.
Why are today's kids doing this?

Because they are pussies, because they never learn to fight back and make their stand. I guess they get teached this on todays #ty cartoon and kids program with all those derpy "friendship is magic", "be friendly", "be political correct" messages. At least those cartoons from the 70's and 80's learned us to take no # and fight back.

But it really makes you wonder what happened. It's certainly a new thing, i'd say from the past 15 years. Look at those teenagers of today, those Emos who cry about everything, all that "woe is me" thinking that also gets promoted through music that targets youths (started with the crappy "Everything sucks and i hate myself" Grunge, went over to the "Buhuhu, i wanna die" Nu Metal and then Emocore #). It sents out the wrong message.

Sometimes i wonder how they will survive later, when they already crying about some Bully at school. How will they survive the adult life, without the parents to run and cry to?

Children that young don't "commit suicide".
I'm having trouble with that...

reply to post by ShadowAngel85


I dunno if that is true. If kids were all pussies, where do the bullies come from?

There are certainly a lot gayer cartoons these days, but they are educational, and my boys have learned a lot from cartoons! The only thing banned in my house is "Fred" on Nickelodeon. I have threatened to cancel our cable subscription many times when I catch them watching that junk.

Anyhow, do you really think it is a new phenomenon? Maybe it is just a result of the internet news? Maybe it always happened but we didn't hear about it? Maybe families used to keep it more secretive? Maybe they used to call them accidents and cover them up?

I dunno, it could be getting worse, but I'm not convinced of it.

reply to post by usmc0311


This happened in Detroit...

I'm sorry, but this is nothing new. Little kids get shot around that area, no wonder the kid wanted to end it on his own terms. Chances are, he would never have left that city anyway...

My heart goes out to that family, but it's only one incident reported out of a dozen incidents. There will be five dead kids next week, and none of them will make the news.

reply to post by OhZone


Because back then, if someone pushed you around, you were allowed to meet up out back and fight over it. If someone ticked you off, you could kick the crap out of them, shake hands and never again have any problem with each other.

Can't do that today. Too many laws and "concerned" citizens.

I was bullied in the 3th grade and never told my parents about it, nobody knew, not the teachers or my sister and cousin who was in 5th grade attending the same school. One day I just had enough and I stood up for myself and I had a little fight that lasted 3 sec. After this fight we actually became friends and started hanging out together and playing sports at recess. I remember his name till this day, but it seemed like he was headed down a dark path becoming a gangster later on, as was his dad when he was younger of course.

Now in middle school things really heated up, 6th grade was the worst time in my life I absolutely hated it. See in elementary there was only 1 bully, now there was a group of kids that were picking on me. These kids all ganged up on me calling me names like "Monkey" because of my ears were a little bigger then the other kids. They would make fun of my name and till this day I hate being called by my first name and just go by Mike. I had 2 friends in 6th grade but they were the "geeky" kids in school so they would get picked on but I was there target for most of the time. When "game boy color" was out I just had to have one, and at that time my mother was working full time and my dad was working 7 days a week 8pm to 9pm, so being a child I cried for one and my mother gave in saved some money and I knew that we weren't "wealthy" but I just had to have one. So my mom and I went to Target and she bought me one with 1 game. I was the happiest boy ever and I just loved that game, having to show off to my friends I took my new game to school with me and was playing during recess and one of my class mates saw me playing with my new game. During class I put my game away in my backpack so I can focus in class and didn't want the teacher to take it away, I had to use the restroom and while I was in the restroom one of the kids went ahead and decided to steal it. When I got back and I wanted to check on my game and found it was missing I just started bursting in tears. I was crying not because I couldn't play with my game, because I knew my mom worked so hard to be able to pay for my game that I just had to have. I didn't care about the game,

I would cry every morning about going to school because I knew what was ahead. My dad would feel bad and just let me stay home at times, even tho it was the wrong thing to do. He would always tell me to stand up for myself and never ever let anyone hurt you. I have to be honest I thought of killing myself at times during 6th grade but what saved me was the love of my parents. I knew when I get home everything would be better. Unfortunately this kid did not have that and that's where the problem lies. You can be bullied all you want but if you have the love of your parents nothing else matters to you as a kid. This doesn't mean you don't have to stand up for yourself, by any means please do. But long story short I stood up too the bullies and I did get my behind kicked and I got kicked out of school for it. But I didn't care cause I was proud of myself. Till this day my parents don't know the true extent of what was going on, they had a idea of what happened but not the whole story. Bullies alone don't send the kids into carrying out suicide, love of the family now that's where it starts.

To sad, to close to home. Thoughts and Prayers for the family. And sadly the Detroit public schools are such a joke, that I'm not surprised no one there caught this.

My daughter starts kindergarten in September so stories like this terrify me

Originally posted by DIRTYDONKEY
To sad, to close to home. Thoughts and Prayers for the family. And sadly the Detroit public schools are such a joke, that I'm not surprised no one there caught this.

My daughter starts kindergarten in September so stories like this terrify me

Get out of there.

Why put your daughter through school in Detroit? The city is dying, the population is leaving, the city is contracting, the streetlights are getting cut off. Here in Sunny Florida we have jobs, and good schools, and good weather, and a growing economy and population. (Not South Florida, that is a whole different culture.) Come to the Emerald Coast!! Pensacola, Tallahassee, even Jacksonville.

I hate to say this, but I don't buy the story. I don't know how a kid even figures it out, he would probably just tie the belt wrong and fall out of it

the older kid could have easily done it and just locked the door behind them

This is so sad. stuff like this makes me sick to my stomach. Bullying should be stopped.

when people realize we are not seperate, bullying will stop.

Alot of people seem to have a hard time believing that a little child could commit suicide.
Chances are, there was no bullying going on but the kid was on some sort of pharmaceutical and that's why he did what he did.
Bullying is just a believable story?
How many child "suicides" that involve bullying were also on meds?
I really dunno, but I'm sure someone will dig, someday.
Just my thought is all.

My reply to this will probably get deleted as I'm sure most of you won't agree.

Sure it's a tragedy for a 7 year old to die and an even bigger tragedy that a 7 year old even knew what suicide is.

It leaves me wondering, what's going nowadays? Why are kids such pussi*s these days?

I'm 30 years old, I grew up in the south bronx, with the worst of the worse, I saw all kinds of bullies that weren't wearing skinny jeans or wearing wayfarers. Where I grew up you wouldn't just get robbed for your lunch money...your new Jordan's would be gone, as well as your jansport and anything else that can be easily taken. being a herb in my neighborhood (a herb is the person being bullied) was the worst possible thing growing up (girls didnt want to know you and the only friends you could possibly make were other bully victims). we had many herbs everywhere who'd constantly be picked on.

why is it that these herbs turned out fine? after having lived through years of worse bullying than some bullsh*t facebook comment, or some other type of "bullying" that the kids go through now..? why has everyone gotten so soft? im not advocating bullying in any way but the fact is that every generation has had its share of bullies, why is it that this generation can't take it? it wasnt on the news 10-15-20 years ago...?

This story is sad nobody should be bullied and have to feel sad.

This is very sad. One thing I think of is that the boy must have understood the concept of suicide, my best guess is he saw some horror movies or was on the wrong part of the internet.. I mean, little boys are concerned over feeling any pain, for one to do something so drastic it would have to be brought on by outside influences imo. And if so than it is even worse for the parent(s) who rose their child wrong. The bullies are a factor but i dont see the connection of being picked on and understanding the concept of suicide.
edit: I would be very interested in knowing if any medications were involved...

reply to post by usmc0311


I think this is about half the story, obviously millions of kids get bullied. NO KID IS GONNA BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO KILL HIMSELF AT AGE 7. Most kids aren't brave enough to brake the rules, you think a kid would kill himself??? You guys have to be paid to post and comment like this. Any1 with a real functioning brain would know that seven year olds are not that brave.

I have yet to find a single post in this thread that mentions the real issue. Everyone is talking about bullying, but bullying is a natural part of life that teaches kids and adults crucial living skills. Let me just say this one thing about the issue that jumped out at me first.

If the kid had not been bullied, his sister may still have found him hanging from his bunk that day. But you can bet money on the fact that if his father was still living in the same house this would not have happened. The reason he did not want to live any more was because his family had fallen apart and he could not cope with the fact that his parents marriage was disposable in their lives. He had lost his father. Children that age cannot look forward to how things may settle in the future. To him, he imagined not getting to depend on his father any more.

If you guys take anything from this, it should be what kind of impact divorce has on children. This is just one symptom of the breakdown of today's family structure, the list of other negative impacts goes on and on. Divorce is one of the most traumatic events in anyone's life. We need to learn how to build relationships that last, it's a dying art and it is destroying lives.

this is so much more than bullying. we're going to be seeing a lot of suicides im afraid.

Originally posted by Quauhtli
I have yet to find a single post in this thread that mentions the real issue. Everyone is talking about bullying, but bullying is a natural part of life that teaches kids and adults crucial living skills. Let me just say this one thing about the issue that jumped out at me first.

If the kid had not been bullied, his sister may still have found him hanging from his bunk that day. But you can bet money on the fact that if his father was still living in the same house this would not have happened. The reason he did not want to live any more was because his family had fallen apart and he could not cope with the fact that his parents marriage was disposable in their lives. He had lost his father. Children that age cannot look forward to how things may settle in the future. To him, he imagined not getting to depend on his father any more.

If you guys take anything from this, it should be what kind of impact divorce has on children. This is just one symptom of the breakdown of today's family structure, the list of other negative impacts goes on and on. Divorce is one of the most traumatic events in anyone's life. We need to learn how to build relationships that last, it's a dying art and it is destroying lives.

But again, people have been getting divorced for a long time. I agree that broken homes can cause problems, but I think if the parents involved work hard to make the split up amicable, and get counseling for the kids (which I think this woman was getting for her son), the kids usually turn out ok.

There have been child suicides where there was no divorce, just bullying. Maybe with this poor boy, it was a combination of things that seemed overwhelming to him. It's just a sad, sad story, and I don't know if there is any one answer.

Originally posted by michaelonats
reply to post by usmc0311

 

I think this is about half the story, obviously millions of kids get bullied. NO KID IS GONNA BE BRAVE ENOUGH TO KILL HIMSELF AT AGE 7. Most kids aren't brave enough to brake the rules, you think a kid would kill himself??? You guys have to be paid to post and comment like this. Any1 with a real functioning brain would know that seven year olds are not that brave.

I don't know that 7-year-olds fully understand death, and its permanence. Maybe he thought that he would die for a little while, and when he came back, all the problems would go away. Who knows what a 7-yr-old's knowledge of death really is.