An 11-year-old boy is driven to suicide by homophobic taunts
Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover had been on the football and basketball teams at the New Leadership Charter School in Springfield. The young athlete had also been undergoing daily bullying and physical threats throughout the school year, after transferring to New Leadership, because his schoolmates thought he was gay. In recent weeks, after the sixth-grader accidentally knocked his bag into a TV which then fell against a female classmate, the hectoring had escalated. Carl’s mother repeatedly phoned school administrators, asking them to do something about the situation, but her calls were not returned.
Such a “bullicide” is hardly an isolated incident. A number of studies over the last several decades have pointed to significantly higher rates of suicide attempts among youth who do not identify as heterosexual, and the homophobic bullying they face in schools around the country surely contributes to their psychological distress. Nearly nine out of 10 lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender students reported being verbally harassed because of their sexual orientation, according to a recent report by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network. That kind of relentless pressure has a damaging effect on adolescents. Even those victims who don’t commit suicide have deep psychological wounds.
Continue reading at The Guardian
Photo: rick/Flickr
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Related causes: Human Rights, Youth
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