(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Kid kills himself after getting bullied for his sexuality... I live pretty close to his high school and thought I would share it .

Originally posted by another user

Jamey Rodemeyer, a 14-year-old boy from Williamsville, NY, took his life Sunday after what his parents claim was years of bullying because of struggles with his sexuality.

His parents, Tracy and Tim Rodemeyer, say that Jamey faced bullies for years, though things intensified in middle school, according to NBC 2. Jamey recently became a freshman at Williamsville North High School.

In the wake of their loss, the Rodemeyers hope to carry on a message of anti-bullying and acceptance. "To the kids who are bullying they have to realize that words are very powerful and what you think is just fun and games isn't to some people, and you are destroying a lot of lives," Jamey's father told WIVB.

Tracy Rodemeyer misses her son, but hopes the loss can still be used to teach a message of tolerance. "It took him away from our family way too early and we're just convinced that he had a purpose on this planet and it was to touch as many people as he could," she told NBC 2.

According to NBC, the Rodemeyers had gone to the school about the problem in the past. Jamey even sought counseling to learn to deal with the problem, but it seems it wasn't enough.

While they say their son seemed happy in the days leading up to the tragedy, his "It Gets Better" YouTube posting from May includes details about how intense the bullying was.

Through it all, Jayme remained outwardly optimistic. “That's all you have to do. Just love yourself and you're set. And I promise you, it'll get better,” he said in the video, which you can see in full below.


Gay bullying has been gaining increasing attention in the media, as a number of tragedies has brought the issue into the spotlight. Earlier this month the California State Senate passed "Seth's Law" a measure designed to curb anti-gay bullying in schools.

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I actually neg repped you because you said a horrible thing. If you commit suicide because your bullied, its wrong but not entirely your fault.

I never claimed it was entirely their fault, this further proves that you didn't read my post as you groned the post for making a claim I never made. Read it again, you misunderstood my opinion. Either way, even if I did say that, whether you think it's horrible or not doesn't mean the post wasn't a good contribution to the discussion. Disagreeing with you is not a good enough reason for down-repping someone. If you disagree with me, explain why, post a counter-argument, and if you're convincing maybe you'll change my mind but it would help if you knew what my opinion was in the first place.

Down-rep people for making poorly made posts, posts that are dismissive, lacking content, pointless, badly written or in the case of a debate, false and/or filled with purposeful misinformation. If everyone down-repped people just for disagreeing with them, no-one would have any rep at all. Now I'm not arguing rep any further, I've made my point, that's the end of it.



True, but why should gay people be forced to live in secret? There's no reason gay people should have to hide a fundamental aspect of who they are just because of the intolerance of others and it's a sad world where entirely reasonable people think it would just be easier to not let people know. Remember this isn't a case of him jumping around the school in boy-toy leather gear wearing a t-shirt that says "I kiss boys", he could keep his private life private, but something as simple as him going on a date would immediately out him. Should he date in private where no-one can see him? Should he lie and join in when the boys in school are talking about the girls they think are hot? It's a lot harder than it seems to hide your sexuality.

Then why did u neg rep me?

Because you're neg-repping people you disagree with (myself included), as a form of passive bullying, rather than neg-repping people for making non-valuable posts. I consider that to devalue the quality of the forum, hense -rep. I won't respond again about this as I would rather not derail the topic further into pointless rep squabbling.

Fine

I did read your full post however. But even tho you do kind of call the bullies scum basically it still doesnt change the fact you said its better off he commited suicide. Better that his genes are gone.

Yes, it was my way of saying, though hyperbole and somewhat sarcastic tones that I don't approve of suicide. I wanted to make it clear that while I consider bullying vile, and always have, I consider suicide equally vile. Suicide leaves people as wrecks. Everyone who commits suicide leaves behind friends and family who will have the constant questioning guilt, "could I have stopped this", "did I not care enough", "why didn't they tell me how they felt". To have so little compassion as to put your family and friends though that because someone is bullying you, that's weak willed and pathetic and I hate people for doing that.

I've expressed this opinion multiple times, using such hyperbole as "express-mail your soul to the God of your choice and do it quickly before you waste another valuable gulp of MY air". Should that sentence be taken entirely seriously, no, but it still shows my displeasure of suicide.

I'm not trying to lessen the effects of bullying, but I've gone though bullying myself and never once considered suicide. To consider such things you need to be truly traumatised and honestly, even then I find it hard to feel sympathy. As I've said, if they don't value their life, how can I be expected to value their life? I'd feel the same if it was a member of my own family.

When it comes down to it, the only time I consider suicide to be reasonable, is when someone is dying and in pain, wanting to end it quickly rather than struggle on for weaks or even months in agony, hell, we put animals down when they're suffering why not people? I'm sorry if you're upset by my flippancy concerning suicide, but that's how I feel. I have a lot of hardship in my life. I find it hard to even get out of bed some days due to the constant pain and fatigue I go though and I know it will only get worse, but do I end my life like a coward. No. I find something worth living for.

You must login or register to view this content. - This is what I go though on a daily basis. If I can live, and live happily with my problems, kids can handle a little bit of bullying. That doesn't make it right, I'm not condoning the bullying, far from it. I hate the bullying and would actively try to stop it if I could, but suicide is an overreaction and one that only hurts more people. That was my point.

It would be better to tell people about your sexuality when your out of high school.

Although I agree with the majority of your points you have made, we need to consider the fact that chronic depression is an illness, it effects the way one thinks and or values themselves and how people see them. I don't agree with suicide, I'm fully against it due to the same reasons you have stated.

When I went through chronic depression, suicide was always on my mind, it's only until after the depression you look back and think 'Shit, I almost killed myself'. During the depression you can't stop thinking about it, you think everyone hates you and you have no bright future, you're reminded every second to what happened, and suicide is always on your mind, trust me it's really hard.

It was only with the help of my family that I was able to move forward from the troublesome events that took place, but without my families support, I'm pretty sure there was a high possibility that I would have ended my life.

I think it's easier to understand if you put it this way, right now if I was to think of killing myself I would feel sick and frankly couldn't see it ever taking place, because I value life importantly. But during the period that I was depressed, it was almost as if I really wanted to do it, like it was the only way out, you know?

It's a hard thing to discuss and even try to explain, but I hope you get where I'm coming from.

You know there is a lot to read here and a lot of different opinions. This is the beauty of living in countries of freedom is that everyone can have their own opinion. I know of 2 people I went to school with that have taken their own lives. As a lot of people look at it an an "easy way out" you really have to stop and consider what people are feeling when they do this act.

I feel bad for everyone in this situation. I mean you have people that is morning the lose of a child, nephew, grandchild, friend, etc. As a society we are quick to look at the bully and put 100% blame on them. Not saying they didn't contribute a lot to the situation. It's the lack of resources set place by our ministries. If the child being bullied had someone more accessible to them then this could have been prevented. But the same goes for the bullies as well. We all need someone to talk to. Bottom line is that nobody knows what goes on in someone else's head or what kind of abusive life they live. Usually when people bully it's because they themselves get bullied and they look for someone "weaker" then they are to bully. Then that person in turn bullies someone else and so on. A lot of people here at NGU are lucky they have the family or friends to talk to if things are bothering them. Just imagine if you had nobody to turn to. I feel really bad for this young kid that took their own life but I also feel bad for the bully because they need help as well.

Just remember that when you hear about something like this you have to look at both sides. We need to help one another and intervene when necessary. Because if we in turn make comments at the bullies we become bullies ourselves. We can't wait until it's too late to help because if we do this happens.