Bullying Drives Teen to Suicide

The parents of Asher Brown, an eighth-grader who committed suicide last Thursday, say that their son killed himself in response to relentless antigay bullying at his Houston school.

According to the Houston Chronicle, the mother and stepfather of Brown said that constant harassment at Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District prompted their 13-year-old son to shoot himself in the head.

“Brown, his family said, was ‘bullied to death’ — picked on for his small size, his religion and because he did not wear designer clothes and shoes,” reported the Chronicle. “Kids also accused him of being gay, some of them performing mock gay acts on him in his physical education class, his mother and stepfather said.”

Grieving parents David and Amy Truong said that the school never responded to several complaints they made in the past 18 months. The school district said they never received any complaints from the parents, teachers or other students.

The Chronicle reported that the morning Brown died, he told his stepfather that he was gay. David Truong said he was OK with the revelation.