Brandon Bitner: Anti-gay bullying leads to another tragic teen suicide

[popehippo]

MIDDLEBURG, Penn. - Anti-gay bullying has reportedly claimed another teen life.

Brandon Bitner, 14, of Mount Pleasant Mills, Penn., walked 13 miles from his home early Friday morning to a busy intersection and threw himself in front of an oncoming tractor-trailer after leaving a suicide note at his home, according to The Daily Item.

There

Comments

[liquiddatura]

[ladypolitik]

the method he chose

oh my god

[taiki]

I know right? :/

uggggggggggggghhhhhhhh.

I wonder if the principal will do anything?

[poetic_scribe]

See icon for my rl reaction

[kyra_neko_rei]

That must've been hell on the driver of the truck he chose. Fuck, my cousin is a trucker. I've considered being one. That's . . . well, it's really not the biggest nightmare present in this situation, or even second biggest, but it's a nightmare nonetheless.

And what if he hadn't written the suicide note, or if his parents had destroyed it to avoid the stigma of suicide or of gayness if he'd come out in the note? Then all of a sudden there's nothing to prove it wasn't driver negligence. This is an industry, mind, in which people can lose their jobs over a speeding ticket.

[taiki]

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what the fuck do we say anymore? What the fuck?

[iolarah]

I know what you mean. After a while it feels like a broken record: the poor kid, bullies are assholes, I feel for his parents--it doesn't make the sentiments any less true, but after so many deaths, how do we work up more than just despondency in response to this? What the hell is it going to take to make it stop?

[thedorkygirl]

walked thirteen miles??? thirteen miles?? WALKED? wouldn't that take hours? I can walk a mile in about 10 minutes, but 3 miles walking takes me about an hour, just cos I get tired and lazy. the poor boy and all he must have been thinking as he made that journey

[othellia]

MTE. I hope it's a typo because otherwise... Not that it makes it any better, I can't imagine walking for hours with only the thought that I was about to commit suicide on my mind.

[piratesswoop]

I can't imagine walking for hours with only the thought that I was about to commit suicide on my mind.

Ugh. God. This gave me chills. I can't even imagine...ugh.

[actourdreams]

It can be done. And it's not nice.

[lemorttoussaint]

JFC. I grew up not far from Mount Pleasant Mills. I hate seeing PA in the news; it's never good. And in that area, no one's going to do a damn thing about it.