James Rodemeyer, 14-year-old in anti-bullying PSA video, commits suicide over anti-homosexual taunts

[lynn82md]

A 14-year-old boy who once recorded an anti-bullying message was remembered at a vigil two days after taunts from his schoolmates led the teen to commit suicide

Comments

[jesskat]

The link doesn't seem to be working.

[lynn82md]

Oh, bloody hell :(

Hmmm...I got the link from a friend on FB, so I will copy every in the article and leave half of it behind a cut. I had a feeling this was going to happen

[ljen]

I read about this tragedy via ONTD. The good news is that Lady Gaga, his idol, has called for a meeting with President Obama to discuss enacting laws to make bullying a hate crime.

It's nice to see celebrities doing more than making videos and paying lip service to serious issues. I applaud her and encourage and hope more people in the media will do the same.

[mermaid88]

I live in where this took place. It's true, what he said- no one does anything about it. I was bullied from third grade to sixth grade. The teachers called it teasing, and the principal suggested that the main boy who did it did so 'because he liked me'. I remember my mom trying to get them to let me transfer to the other school in our district but they wouldn't let me because of something about the school bus' routes. I went to a private school for seventh and eight grade but that was as high as they went there so for ninth grade I was right back where it started. This time, the school staff's solution was to remove ME from the class that they gave me the most trouble. (if it was so easy to screw with my schedule, why couldn't they change the bullies' schedules and let me stay in art?) then the summer before tenth grade my mom got married and I started a new school, where, someone else picked up where the other bullies left off. (also in an art class; this person also thought it funny to mimic the sounds the special needs kids made

[lynn82md]

It's true, what he said- no one does anything about it.
I agree

This time, the school staff's solution was to remove ME from the class that they gave me the most trouble. (if it was so easy to screw with my schedule, why couldn't they change the bullies' schedules and let me stay in art?)I never had that problem, but my former neighbor...before she moved away and her daughters were attending a school not far from here...one of her twin daughters got attacked by a kid with a knife (this is a long story by the way that happened in 2009, something I blogged about on my personal journal because it made me so angry). Now, there were a couple fucked up things about this

[mermaid88]

They did that (made me sit a lunch table by myself) in fifth grade. Unluckily, the kid also was on my bus, and once when we were all going out to the buses after school let out, he slammed into my friend who wound up knocking me over, an I broke my glasses. Know what the teacher who saw it said to the bully?
..."you need to walk, don't run."
*makes a screwface* o.O

[thelastmermaid]

Jesus X Christ! When I was in 8th grade I got every bit of flack for my sexuality/sexual orientation (real AND perceived). A guy who was a huge wrestling fanatic, big and burly, called me "dyke" and "lesbo" and "ugly bitch" every day in Algebra class. I reported it to the staff and faculty, the bully lied about it (said to the principal & such that he'd NEVER said such a thing), the vice-principal said I needed to quit making up stories, and the bully threatened to beat the shit out of me if I ever opened my mouth again.All in front of my math teacher, no less. Ironically, I wound up being rejected 4 and 5 years later by most lesbians for being "too girly", and now I am engaged to a man...still it isn't fair...