7-year-old's suicide shocks Detroit community

7-year-old's suicide shocks Detroit community

www.freep.com

Peering through the keyhole of a locked door in her family's home near Detroit's New Center, a 14-year-old girl saw the unthinkable: her 7-year-old brother hanging from a bunk bed with a belt around his neck, a police report says.

The girl alerted her mother and called 911. The mother and a neighbor forced their way into the room, took the boy down, and called 911, too.

The 7-year-old, whom the Free Press is not naming, had been depressed about being bullied by other kids at school and in his neighborhood, and about his parents' recent separation, the boy's mother told police, accord

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This is just so sad I don't know where to begin. Bullying has to stop. Todays world makes me sick. Detroit has enough problems as it is and now this. I feel awful for this boys family. I hope people will wake up after seeing this. Especially those with children who either bully, or are being bullied.

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reply to post by usmc0311


I seriously got the goose bumps when I read this.... Poor thing.. and I feel so for his family.. I agree with you wholeheartedly, BULLYING HAS TO STOP! It is only getting worse and I feel for every single child in school right now. 7 is so young, his story hadn't even began.. Condolences for this child's family.. .

Blimey! What's this World coming to that even kids as young as 7 are committing suicide.

I really wish bullying in every aspect of life is cut at the root! But I know that's way too much to ask for.

With World leaders bullying other Countries into what they want, then what can we expect of others?

Humanity needs to pop it's head in for everyone...

Originally posted by faryjay
Blimey! What's this World coming to that even kids as young as 7 are committing suicide.

I really wish bullying in every aspect of life is cut at the root! But I know that's way too much to ask for.

With World leaders bullying other Countries into what they want, then what can we expect of others?

Humanity needs to pop it's head in for everyone...

Your absolutely right. With world leaders setting the example things probably won't change.

reply to post by usmc0311


I remember those days of having bullies and it was very hard to deal with. I sometimes didnt even want to go to school. My heart and prayers go out for this childs family. Its a sad day when a 7 yr old cannot take the pressures of life due to peer interaction being negative. There has to be a better screening process, not to segragate the children but maybe to give those noticed more attention as bullying is a attention related activity.

I was gonna post this story, but I just cried for a little while..Grown man in tears...

Wow...what a sad story. It is hard to believe that a 7 year old could have so much pain in his life that suicide is the only option. Kids that age are supposed to be playing and having fun. Sure there are cruel kids that bully others but the parents are the ones that need to step in at that point. While I feel bad for the parents, I also blame them for not doing enough.

TPTB dont give a toss. The more there is to keep us distracted the better.

This is just ONE of the reasons more people are home schooling.

I hope that childs school is looked at through a microscope coz they were in a position to stop the bullying and didnt.
When one of my own children was bullied at school I went straight to the head and told them "I'm holding YOU responsible" It worked.

Terrible thing for his sister to see. I hope she's getting help.

This is totally sad, and I hate the media for making a big deal of this family's tragedy.
Imagine how the family must feel having their child be the lead story......

I also cannot fathom the despair of one so young.....where were his parents...authority figures.....
someone......

reply to post by usmc0311


This is a horrible story, it is unthinkable.

This is just so sad I don't know where to begin. Bullying has to stop. Todays world makes me sick.

This part I disagree with. The more and more and more we crack down on bullying, the more these stories of suicides and school shootings hit the news. Bullying used to be a natural part of growing up. Bullies learned their lesson when they bullied the wrong kid. Good kids learned to stick up for their weaker counterparts. Kids that couldn't fight learned other coping skills like humor or wit or they got motivated and learned karate or something. Things had a natural order to them.

Nowadays, it seems bullying is always in the news, and there is zero-tolerance, and yet things have only gotten worse? Why not let the kids be kids?

I'll give another example. I used to have a pitbull, and rottweiler, and then I rescued another rottweiler from the neighbor before they put it to sleep. I tried to make the dogs get along, but as long as I was in the yard meddling in dog business, all they did was fight. They were territorial and protective over me, and they were injuring one another. When I finally left them alone, they fought a little, but they worked out a pecking order, and they all lived in harmony after that.

Even in dog fighting rings, the dogs don't kill each other unless a human keeps turning them back in over and over again. The dogs fight to a submission, but they almost never fight to the death without outside influence.

So, while I am heart-broken over this tragedy, I have to disagree with the blanket statement "this bullying has to stop." The world has bullies. My job has bullies. Relationships have bullies. Bullying will never stop, so we need to stop meddling so much and let natural lessons and rites of passage develop the way they should. I still remember the first bully I hit with a 2x4, LOL! I also still have lifelong friends that I made while standing up to older classmates on their behalf. I made friends with the weaker kids, and earned the respect of the bullies, and I still have both that I still call my friends.

reply to post by Vasa Croe


Thing is I remember my parents trying to help me, but its like training somewhat social training ON YOUR OWN SOMEWHAT when in school amongst peers. The student don't want to tell on their peers and look even more different and get segregated from their peer group so they try to find out how to adjust. Some children develop their LEADER/FOLLOWER skills during these youthful periods unfortunately the parents cannot assist during these learning times fully at some periods you have to allow the children time to learn on their own like a parent bird forcing the baby bird out of the nest because the parent bird knows YES the baby may fall and get hurt a little but if they don't learn to fly they wont survive. So its not fully fault on parents. It takes surveillance of the schools classes observations of the students and then the problem students pulled to the side with their parents in meeting to discuss better learning practices and social skills. Hard task but not impossible. Imagine a hard core school zone FULLY surveillance (not intense big brother) just saftey social / health surveillance ect. ALL STUDENTS OBSERVED AND ONLY INTERACTED WITH BY OBSERVERS WHEN noticed to be out of line... Makes for better SAFER schools where the children can learn and develop better social skills outside of bullying/and following the bullies behaviors.

1st off my heart goes out to his family. I think this "Bullying Epidemic" is blown outta proportion. It's the fault of everyone in society, starting with the parents. We baby and pamper our children to the point where they can't even be kids.

My children came home and said that the "Bullying lady" who came to school to teach them said ..." If they don't play with someone, they're a bully". Some people mix like oil and water. You can't force the unnatural. It's part of nature and builds character to be human. I told them they don't have to be mean to someone, but if they can't get along then they can just leave. They aren't forced to do anything they're not comfortable with. If you're forcing MY KID to do something they don't want...isn't that bullying? If you're picking on a kid, calling him/her names daily and pushing them around or beating them and taking their stuff...that's bullying.

Everything else is just a failure on society's behalf...especially the parents.

My 18 yr old said it the best......
"Society and the school system are setting our children up for nothing but failure."

People need to take a little responsability in this country/world and spend some actual time teaching and nurturing their children on how to handle life instead of letting some broken system project their twisted personal beliefs upon our children. Also stop sticking them in front of the damn television or video games for hours just to keep them out of your hair.

I'm sick of everyone blaming everbody else. This child's family let him down. it all started with the seperation of the parents.


At least the poor child is in a place where he won't suffer anymore. God bless his soul and may he finally be at peace.


EDIT to Add... Couldn't agree with you more
getreadyalready

I endorse this behavior.
This child might have aged and found a mate and muddied up the gene pool.
I suppose someone will now want to write new laws pertaining to bullying and muddy up our legal system again...

Personally, I think the easiest way that we can stop bullying is by stopping the criminalization of kids who stand up to the bullies.

Kids these days have drilled into them that the only option is going to an authority figure. We do this, and then we wonder why we have so many people dependent upon the government.

I wonder if making bullying the recent cause du joir isnt making things worse.

Instead of a bully just being some jerk-off who harasses you now a bully is this aggrandized figure. A super-villain.

There have always been bullies. Sure, there are those choice few situations where the situation is more than clique ridicule and more than stolen lunch money but by putting out all these PSA's and involving governments and administrators and bringing out all the "experts" arent we creating an atmosphere where every bullying situation is represented as one of super-bullying?

So now a young kid experiencing bullying for the first time doesnt conclude on his own what it really is or how to deal with it because all of these outside actors are defining it for him as a situation in need of political action, a situation that is horrible and will never end without sweeping societal change.

When it's just some angry fat kid from a broken home who will move on eventually.

Every mole hill is now a mountain and zero-tolerance rules the day.

Being bullied is approached like a terminal diagnosis by everyone around you. That has to affect the target or victim.

Not saying any of this applies here. Just an thought based on observations of the current bully craze.

reply to post by AnIntellectualRedneck


Hear here!
That is what I believed and still do.
I have 6 kids, when they were in school I let them know, start a fight and you will have one with me when you get home.
That said, NEVER let anyone bully you, your siblings or anyone else.
If you get suspended, you will get ice cream and cartoons for the whole day off.
I instructed the principals of their schools how I felt on the situations and let them know I hold them personally accountable...GET IT.
None of my kids ever commited suicide, in fact they are well adjusted young adults nowadays.

Rest in peace young man. This crap pisses me off.
LOVE
NOT
WAR

reply to post by g146541


My son is still in pre-K. He is a pretty athletic kid, and he is the best in his karate class. His karate teacher tells them, "We never use our karate against our friends, or siblings, or parents. It is for the bad guys." (They're only 4 and 5 year olds.) So anyhow, he comes home several days with scratches on his face, and apparently he has some new friend "Sam" that is a bully. I ask him if he is going to make the kid stop, and he says, "we never use karate on our friends." So, I tell him a friend would not intentionally hurt him, and if he wants "Sam" as a friend, then he needs to stand up for himself so Sam will respect him. The next day at school, they get in a little fight, and my son goes and tells the teacher. They both get in a little trouble, my son was mad about getting in trouble, but I told him everything was ok, it was worth it, no big deal, stop being a tattle tale, just whoop Sam and this problem goes away.

The next day, I'm dropping him off at school, and I ask the teacher what the whole story is, and I LOVE THIS TEACHER!! She says, "I wish Jackson would just beat the hell out of Sam and get it over with. That kid is mean to everyone, he has a rough deal at home, and Jackson is the only one he halfway tries to get along with. If Jackson would take him down a notch or two, he might be a good kid." So, I tell Jackson before I leave, that he will get in trouble for tattling, and if he lets Sam hurt him anymore, he will get in trouble and not get to play with Sam, but if he just stands up to Sam, then everything will work itself out.

He came home that day, there was a fight. Sam got a bloody nose and a bump on his head, they both had to sit out of recess, but the teacher privately told Jackson that she was sorry he had to miss recess and she was happy he stood up for himself, and Sam is now much nicer to Jackson and the other kids, because now Sam knows that if you pick on the wrong person, you might get a bloody nose!

Those are some damn good lessons to be learned at such a young age!! Jackson, Sam, the teacher, and the other kids are all much better off for this experience. The police were never called, the parents were never called, nobody has any permanent damage. All the kids became a little more mature and respectful.

Question is how did a 7 year old know how to commit suicide? Did he see something on the web - a video from some sick site that gave him the idea of tying a belt around his neck? Usually self-inflicted deaths of children at this age are accidental, like swallowing medicine they find or playing with a gun/fire. This just raises some really disturbing questions, beyond the bullying issue.