Bullying Leads to Child’s Suicide (video: CNN’s Anderson Cooper Reports,
via NewsPoliticsNews at YouTube)
It’s nearly impossible to believe that in the same week, in which we learned of the death of an 11-year-old student driven to suicide by anti-gay taunts, the professional anti-GLBT forces are rallying their troops to oppose measures intended to make our schools safer for all students. ABC News reports on the senseless death of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover:
When Words Can Kill: ‘That’s So Gay’
Anti-Gay Taunts in School Lead to 11-Year-Old’s Suicide and Rising Calls for ChangeCarl Joseph Walker-Hoover was 11– hardly old enough to know his sexuality and yet distraught enough to hang himself last week after school bullies repeatedly called him “gay.”
The Springfield, Mass., football player and Boy Scout was ruthlessly teased, despite his mother’s pleas to the New Leadership Charter School to address the problem.
Sirdeaner L. Walker, 43, found Carl hanging by an extension cord on the second floor of the family’s home April 6, just minutes before she was going to a meeting to confront school authorities again.
“I am brokenhearted,” she told ABCNews.com. “We worry about the economy and about Iraq, but we need to be worried about our schools.”
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In an ironic twist, the boy would have turned 12 on April 17 — the same day students in thousands of schools across the country will participate in the annual Day of Silence to bring attention to anti-gay harassment in schools.
“There was no reason for the mother to believe he was gay,” said Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network spokesman Daryl Presgraves. “It just happens he was someone his peers targeted, calling him, ‘girlie,’ ‘gay’ and ‘fag.’ According to the mother, it was a daily occurrence.”
Timothy Kincaid, writing at Box Turtle Bulletin, provides a round-up of the professional GLBT-hater’s lunatic response to GLSEN’s Day of Silence scheduled for this Friday, 17 April.
Here’s what GLSEN has to say about the Day of Silence:
This Friday, April 17th, is the 13th annual National Day of Silence.
LGBT students and allies from thousands of schools will take a vow of silence to call attention to the cultural epidemic of bullying, name-calling and harassment in our nation’s schools.
While many of us are no longer in school, we can show our support of these students by pledging our moral support for the Day of Silence, and our promise to talk about its goals with family and friends – especially when the topic of bullying and school violence comes up.
Add your name to our 2009 Day of Silence Pledge – HERE.
We’re aiming to rally 10,000 GLSEN supporters like you!
It takes just 30 seconds to pledge your support. But that simple action will send a powerful message to students across our country who endure relentless – and often unchecked – bullying and harassment simply because they’re “different.” While hundreds of thousands of students use their silence to protest anti-LGBT bullying and harassment, please pledge to use your voice to support their courage. And in the days to come, speak up and raise awareness in honor of these students.
30 seconds of your time is surely not too much ask, because words really can kill.
UPDATE (15 April 9:57 am):Â Jim Burroway, at Box Turtle Bulletin, has the Anderson Cooper Reports video up. I added it above. Thanks to Jim Burroway and Timothy Kincaid for their diligence.
Click for Printable Version
