INDIANA: 15 Year-Old Boy Commits Suicide Over Anti-Gay Bullying

[WillParkinson]

INDIANA: 15 Year-Old Boy Commits Suicide Over Anti-Gay Bullying

Another dead victim of anti-gay bullying, this time in Indiana.

He was a teenager who didn't quite fit in. His classmates said Billy Lucas was bullied for being different. The 15-year-old never told anyone he was gay but students at Greensburg High School thought he was and so they picked on him. "People would call him 'fag' and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he's different basically," said student Dillen Swango. Students told Fox59 News it was common knowledge that children bullied Billy and from what they said, it was getting worse. Last Thursday, Billy's mother found him dead inside their barn. He had hung himself. Students said on that same day, some students told Billy to kill himself. "They said stuff like 'you're like a piece of crap' and 'you don't deserve to live.' Different things like that. Talked about how he was gay or whatever," said Swango.

School administrators claim to have had no knowledge of the bullying, despite many students saying that they were aware of Billy's torment. A memorial Facebook page for Billy can be found here. Indiana does not include gay youth in its anti-bullying laws, no doubt thanks to repulsive Christianist groups like Focus On The Family.

http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2010/09/indiana-15-year-old-boy-commits-suicide.html

[Ishoutandscream2]

1. This shit has got to end

And a special thanks to the bullying right wing in this nation for their role in actions such as these.

[BlueJazz]

2. Aw..Geez..the poor Kid. Damn, I can't imagine the torture and self-lothing he felt.

I wish somebody or group could have taken him "under their wing" and showed him HE was OK...it's society that's fucked-up.

[RKP5637]

4. Clearly a fucked up society and often those doing the bullying get a free pass, and

so do many school administrators and teachers. This crap has to be stopped.

[RKP5637]

3. About time school administrators were brought up on charges for crap like this, as well

as others involved.

[racaulk]

5. +1

Teachers and school administrators have to somehow be held accountable for stuff like this. The fact that this sort of behavior had gone on unabated for an extended period of time, while the people running that school claim to have had no idea it was going on, is absolutely appalling.

:grr:

[racaulk]

6. A complete tragedy.

This child's life was cut tragicly short at the hands of hateful, awful children and school administrators who negligently (or willingly) turned a blind eye to the abuse that this child was suffering. A child that was entrusted to their care. Absolutely fucking shameful.

RIP, Billy Lucas. I'm so sorry that your short life was so tortured. No one deserves to be treated the way you were.

:cry:

[WillParkinson]

7. Billy's picture...

I'm haunted looking at it. A tragedy on so many levels.

[Occulus]

16. Good-looking enough to have been a child actor on a TV show, too. Mother. FUCKERS.

I bet when he was in comfortable surroundings he had a quick wit, came across as a smart guy, and could hold a conversation; i.e., "things that make you different as a teenager" for $200, Alex.

And it takes real douchebaggery to claim they didn't know the bullying was going on. Shit like this makes me want to beat into a hospital bed those who say that responding to bullies with force "reduces you to their level". This kid looks like the sort who would never fight back, and that's a big part of why he was a target. For most of those cowards, all he would have had to have done is to throw a punch when nobody was looking.

This is a GOD DAMN SHAME.

:cry:

[Mimosa]

17. What a sweet looking kid.

He would have grown up to be very handsome. Too bad he didn't make it.

I wonder if he had two loving parents? Or any kind of family support system?

It seems if he had a strong understanding adult he could trust and rely upon, this wouldn't have happened?

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. Repellent. Unspeakable.

What is to be done?

[dsc]

9. It is so hard for me to read of these cases and not go back in time

I really wish ouf future selves could go back to our present selves and tell us things will be OK. It is so easy for a kid to forget, for just the second it takes, that life at any given point in time isn't the way things will end up. I can only hope this poor kid has finally found some peace.

[dickthegrouch]

10. What can we, the adults, do to assist?

I have not been in a US school for quite a while (!). Are there posters in every common area advertising things like the National Suicide Prevention Hotline? Does every state have a teen crisis hotline? Those things can be extremely important when a teen thinks they have nowhere else to turn (I spent 10 hours being calmed down when I was 16, Mary became a lifelong friend).

My home town has a teen LGBTIQ group, as do several others in the vicinity, but the usual problem is that people are afraid to go for fear they'll see (or be seen by) someone they know. They haven't thought through quite far enough to realize that that person is probably there for the same reason they are.

We MUST do more to reach out and help in the non-coastal/metropolis areas that so many kids are nowhere close to.

[dsc]

15. I can't speak for every school

but I can speak for mine. Sadly no we don't have those posters up in our halls. We do have them in our student services area. We had a suicide last year of a former student (one year out).

[AmandaMae]

11. what a tragedy. this has got to stop happening. n/t

[ruggerson]

12. Unbelievably sad

n/t

[donheld]

13. How many more have to die

This is very sad.

[David Zephyr]

14. It goes on and on and on...and it breaks my heart.

How many times does this shit happen every single day to wonderful children? It's heat breaking.

[bbdad]

18. "School administrators claim to have had no knowledge of the bullying ..."

Yeah, right. The fact of the matter is that quite frequently bullies are popular students. Popularity and social status are all that matters.

[bbdad]

19. ANY students who are even slightly different (by whose standard?), ...

... gay or otherwise, are dead meat. It's Lord of the Flies. Hooray for comformity! And while we're at it, let's give a strong boost to that perennial of American culture -- anti-intellectualism.