He shot himself in the head with a gun that belonged to his stepdad (ironic that we were just talking about parents who have guns.)


http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7220896.html

Quote :

Asher Brown's worn-out tennis shoes still sit in the living room of his Cypress-area home while his student progress report — filled with straight A's — rests on the coffee table.

The eighth-grader killed himself last week. He shot himself in the head after enduring what his mother and stepfather say was constant harassment from four other students at Hamilton Middle School in the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District.

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. 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.

The 13-year-old's parents said they had complained about the bullying to Hamilton Middle School officials during the past 18 months, but claimed their concerns fell on deaf ears.

David and Amy Truong said they made several visits to the school to complain about the harassment, and Amy Truong said she made numerous phone calls to the school that were never returned.
'We want justice'

Cy Fair ISD officials said Monday that they never received any complaints from Brown's parents before the suicide about the way the boy was being treated at school.

School district spokeswoman Kelli Durham, whose husband Alan Durham is a Hamilton assistant principal, said no students, school employees or the boy's parents ever reported that he was being bullied.

That statement infuriated the Truongs, who accused the school district of protecting the bullies and their parents.

"That's absolutely inaccurate — it's completely false," Amy Truong said. "I did not hallucinate phone calls to counselors and assistant principals. We have no reason to make this up. … It's like they're calling us liars."

David Truong said, "We want justice. The people here need to be held responsible and to be stopped. It did happen. There are witnesses everywhere."

Numerous comments from parents and students on the Web site of KRIV-TV Channel 26, which also reported a story about Brown's death, stated that the boy had been bullied by classmates for several years and claimed Cy-Fair ISD does nothing to stop such harassment.

Durham said the school counselor and an assistant principal received an e-mail from Amy Truong earlier this month, asking them to keep an eye on her son, but Durham said it was because of ongoing concerns at home and not about bullying.
Shot himself with pistol

Brown was found dead on the floor of his stepfather's closet at the family's home in the 11700 block of Cypresswood about 4:30 p.m. Thursday. He used his stepfather's 9 mm Beretta, stored on one of the closet's shelves, to kill himself. He left no note. David Truong found the teen's body when he arrived home from work.

On the morning of his death, the teen told his stepfather he was gay, but Truong said he was fine with the disclosure. "We didn't condemn," he said.

His parents said Brown had been called names and endured harassment from other students since he joined Cy-Fair ISD two years ago. As a result, he stuck with a small group of friends who suffered similar harassment from other students, his parents said.

His most recent humiliation occurred the day before his suicide, when another student tripped Brown as he walked down a flight of stairs at the school, his parents said.

When Brown hit the stairway landing and went to retrieve his book bag, the other student kicked his books everywhere and kicked Brown down the remaining flight of stairs, the Truongs said.

Durham said that incident was investigated, but turned up no witnesses or video footage to corroborate the couple's claims.
'I hope you're happy'

The Truongs say they just want the harassment to stop so other students do not suffer like their son did and so another family does not have to endure such a tragedy.

"Our son is just the extreme case of what happens when (someone is) just relentless," Amy Truong said.

To the bullies, she added, "I hope you're happy with what you've done. I hope you got what you wanted and you're just real satisfied with yourself."

Services for Brown will be held Saturday.

That's school for you.

And yet some people love to go on about how we're SOOOO evolved, we're SOOOO much more intelligent and advanced than animals, and that school is NOT a bad place, that unpopular kids are NOT picked on, that nobody is put through hell there if they're different. I'd sure love to know what planet the people who say these kinds of things live on, I think we could all stand a vacation there.

This is pretty damned sad that nothing was done to save this kid from the school bullies. Also something that caught my attention was the fact that the kid admitted to his stepfather the morning he "killed himself" that he was gay. I would look in that direction as well. If it was indeed bullying that made him do this then all involved should be held accountable.

Over the past month or so, this makes the third kid who has taken his own life because he was being taunted at school for being gay. So so sad. Maybe homeschooling ISN'T such a bad idea after all.

stonestatic wrote:

Over the past month or so, this makes the third kid who has taken his own life because he was being taunted at school for being gay. So so sad. Maybe homeschooling ISN'T such a bad idea after all.

Irony!

Forgiveness_Man wrote:

That's school for you.

Are you saying you're blaming the school?

I worked for this school district as a counselor. I know that there are people who will work with kids who need help with bullying. I also know that some schools simply do not put a priority on counseling. I'm so sad to see that the kid died. It breaks my heart. Just breaks my heart.

Sorrow is the first thing that hits me, so many of these pup kids just starting to experience their lives only to be destroyed by ignorance. When I hear these things it's like hearing that another piece of Fine Art has been destroyed by an ignorant mob.

I know a lot of these kinda kids, worked with them. Many have tremendous potential to live life and enrich those around them. Some are just everyday kids who just want to be free to exist.

The failure here goes back to community and parents who set the tone for a lot of schools. My experience may be different from others but in this very rural community a lot of fundamentalist type end up on school board and dictate a lot of what the school does. There are some great anti bullying videos available. The Southern Poverty Law Center has one but its been block on "religious" reasons from a lot of schools.

It will only stop when people stop blaming institutions and start taking personal responsibility to eduacate and change the climate of hate. I interact with kids professionally. I also come into lots of kid contact because of my 17 year old son. A lot of these kids are hungry for adult ideas outside of what they get at home. The change will start with the kids.

That's sad. May he RIP.

alan smithee wrote:

Are you saying you're blaming the school?

Well I don't think they deserve to come out of it Scot free. School IS usually where bullies turn their victims' lives into hell, and the teachers either look the other way or 'oh you're being too sensitive, you need to learn to get along with them'. They NEVER do anything with the kids who start the whole mess because they might hurt their precious little feelings or because they're popular and everybody wants to be their friends. No room for the unpopular kids, the ones without a lot of friends and without rich and popular parents who can fix things with one phone call, they just have to learn to deal with it and if they can't and wind up killing themselves, then it's a tragedy but it wasn't of any importance when the victim was alive.

Horrid news. All the kids who bullied and mocked him will have this on their souls for a long time to come.

It is so sad that kids go through harassment so severe that they take their own life just to end it. I think that everyone is to blame, including parents. Maybe I am being idealistic, but I think they should have seen how bad it was affecting him and either pulled him from school or got intensive counseling. The school is at fault for not being proactive, and seemingly lying about it after the fact.

Shortly after I replied to this, this story was discussed on the Today Show:

A Rutgers University freshman killed himself after two classmates used a hidden dorm room camera to splash his sex life across the internet, sources told the Daily News.

A distraught Tyler Clementi, 18, left his wallet on the George Washington Bridge before plunging to his death in the Hudson River last Wednesday, sources said.

A Twitter post from one of the students accused of streaming the sexual encounter live on the internet indicated Clementi, a renowned high school violinist, was with another man.

Same stupid shit happens in college too. Pathetic.

alan smithee wrote:

Are you saying you're blaming the school?

I am not blaming THE school, I am blaming school. xD

stonestatic wrote:

Over the past month or so, this makes the third kid who has taken his own life because he was being taunted at school for being gay. So so sad. Maybe homeschooling ISN'T such a bad idea after all.

Actually over the past month there have been FIVE suicides by gay teens because of bullying and harassment. The latest being a college student whose roommate figured out he was gay, secretly videotaped him making out with his BF and then broadcasted it over the internet. He couldnt handle the scrutiny and so he jumped off a bridge into the ocean.

I really thought that the younger generation was becoming considerably more gay tolerant these days, but stories like these just take me back to when I was in school.