US boy, 9, killed himself after homophobic bullying, mum says

[Judi Lynn]

Source: BBC News

2 hours ago

A nine-year-old boy has killed himself after enduring four days of homophobic bullying at school in Denver, Colorado, his mother says.

Leia Pierce told KDVR-TV that her son, Jamel Myles, revealed to her over the summer that he was gay.

She said Jamel wanted to go to school and tell his classmates because he was "proud" to be gay.

Denver Public Schools (DPS) say crisis counsellors have been made available to students at Jamel's elementary school.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45323933

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Rest in Peace, Jamel Myles

[oberliner]

1. Why the BBC for a local Denver story?

Here's the local coverage of the story from The Denver Post:

Crisis counselors meet with kids at Denver elementary school after 9-year-old kills himself

https://www.denverpost.com/2018/08/27/denver-elementary-student-suicide/

[Cold War Spook]

2. Maybe with a little help from the school he would not have killed himself.

My grandson is transgender. His school does not put up with any kind of bullying. So far he is doing quite well.

[Mosby]

3. sad he felt so alone at 9.

[AllaN01Bear]

4. what happened to all of the anti bullying programs that the schools are to have

. where was the school police if they had any.

[LisaM]

5. I think there are a few details lacking in this tragic story.

We don't know that the school didn't have a program - we also only have the word of a sister that bullying took place, as the little boy apparently never mentioned this to his mother. I'm certainly not denying that he could have been bullied, but I just don't think there's enough information here to say what actually happened.

[AllaN01Bear]

6. thanks .

[Codeine]

7. My daughter was bullied after coming out

in middle school last year. I came down like a ton of bricks on that place, which is not like me at all. There was punishment, but not nearly severe enough to suit me. The physical bullying stopped, but the verbal harassment didn’t, so I pulled her out and enrolled her in a performing arts charter school.

I don’t like charter schools, but I like little savage pieces of shit fucking with my kid even less, so I did what I needed to do. Probably a third of the kids in the new school identify as LGBTQ, so it’s a much happier place for her to learn.