Family members of an
11-year-old boy who committed suicide in DeKalb County, Ga., on
Thursday afternoon say that relentless bullying is to blame for
their son's death, according to the
Atlanta-Journal Constitution
.
Jaheem Herrera, a
fifth-grader at Dunaire Elementary School in the Atlanta area,
hanged himself in his room after enduring extreme daily
bullying that included antigay taunts. His 10-year-old sister
discovered his body.
Herrera's mother and
stepfather say they were aware of the consistent bullying,
although their son tried to hide the extent of it. His mother,
Masika Bermudez, complained to the school, reports WSB-TV
,
and she talked with his best friend about the situation.
"He said, 'Yes,
ma'am. He told me that he's tired of everybody always messing
with him in school. He is tired of telling the teachers and the
staff, and they never do anything about the problems. So the
only way out is by killing himself,'" Bermudez told
WSB-TV.
Jaheem was an excellent
student who moved with his family to the Atlanta area last year
from St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands, said stepfather
Norman Keene.
The suicide of Jaheem
follows the death earlier this month of 11-year-old Carl Joseph
Walker-Hoover, a sixth-grader in Springfield, Mass., who hanged
himself after reportedly enduring relentless antigay
bullying.
In March, the parents
of Eric Mohat -- a Mentor, Ohio, 17-year-old who shot and
killed himself in 2007 following what his parents characterize
as months of merciless antigay harassment -- filed a
lawsuit against Mentor High School with the U.S.
district court in the northern Ohio district; they're not
seeking compensation for themselves, but rather an
admission that Eric's death was a "bullycide,"
and they're asking that the school put in place an
anti-bullying program to prevent future such
tragedies.
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