The impacts of language
and behavior can be deadly, especially in a school environment
where young people are already highly impressionable and
vulnerable. Unfortunately, this difficult lesson has been
conveyed many times when young people resort to drastic and
permanent measures to escape the despair of enduring constant
bullying and harassment at school.
It is deeply disturbing
that on April 6, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, an 11-year-old
sixth-grader from Springfield, Mass., hanged himself with an
extension cord in his family's home after being subjected to
continuous antigay bullying and harassment at his middle
school. It is equally disheartening that on April 16, less than
two weeks later, Jaheem Herrera, an 11-year-old fifth-grader
from DeKalb County, Ga., also hanged himself at home after
being the subject of antigay taunts from his classmates. These
were two completely separate and isolated instances, but the
tragic and preventable nature of each unfortunate loss of life
remains the same.
Neither Carl nor Jaheem
identified as gay, yet their peers' defamatory language and
hurtful behaviors broke the barriers of sexual orientation and
gender identity. Being taunted as "faggot," "queer," or
"homo" by classmates is offensive and demeaning to any
student -- straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and
questioning alike.
Carl is the fourth
middle-school student this year to commit suicide due to
bullying; Jaheem was still in elementary school. Older students
are also at a high risk, as suicide is one of the top three
causes of death among 15- to 24-year-olds and the
second-leading cause of death on college campuses. Lesbian,
gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youths are up to
four times more likely to attempt suicide than their
heterosexual peers, and those who come from a rejecting family
are up to nine times more likely to do so.
Two of the top three
reasons secondary school students said their peers were most
often bullied at school were actual or perceived sexual
orientation and gender expression, according to a 2005 report
by GLSEN and Harris Interactive. In addition, the Trevor
Project fields tens of thousands of calls from young people
each year, both straight and LGBT-identified, with rejection
and harassment by peers being one of the top five issues
reported by callers.
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Charles Robbins is
the executive director and CEO of the Trevor
Project. Eliza Byard, Ph.D., is the executive director
of the Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education
Network.