Teen's Suicide Leads To Mom's Fight For LGBT Youth

Wow. She honestly thought he had the perfect life? I understand she's hurting, but getting bullied (to the point of suicide) 'cause you like dick is no perfect life.

 

She didn't know. You can't blame her. Many parents are unaware of the trouble their children face from peers.

 

^ She didn't even know he was gay until after he killed himself.

Can't even imagine how awful that must feel...

 

I'm sorry, but if a parent doesn't know something's wrong at school, then they're either in denial or just plain don't know their kid very well. Maybe I'm assuming too much because I don't know all the facts, but seriously, there are objective signs that parents should recognize even when their kids put on charades of happiness and contentment.

 

He commit suicide when he was 15. He came out when he was 13. Gay people get picked on. That's more common knowledge than shoe-tying.

 

I understand that but maybe he just put on this big act around her like everything was all fine and dandy. A lot of kids do that no matter why they're being picked on. They're just too embarrassed and want to handle it themselves. However, we don't know enough to assume either case.

 

Yeah, you never know. He could have done that.

 

This is the largest school district in Minnesota, and just in the past year, there have been 7 suicides, including 3 because of being bullied for being gay.

 

It's upsetting for something like this to happen before someone steps up. We should also pledge to stand up against all kinds of bullying.

 

Not everyone presents these 'objective signs' you mention. I have always been exceptionally good at hiding my true state of happiness or sadness... no-one ever has a clue, and that's the way i feel comfortable.

Not everyone is capable of interpreting these 'objective signs' even if they do exist

My parents never had the remotest clue of my moods. Neither of them were capable of relating to me, reading me, or inspiring me to be honest about my feelings very well at all. As far as they were concerned, all was always completely fine all of the time and i never had any major problems.

This remains the case, though replace 'parents' with 'friends'. For some of us, it is difficult to open up to others, and extremely easy (often through years of practice) to be completely emotionally opaque and impenetrable. It's one of my major problems i will probably always have.

'Not knowing one's kid very well' is not an inherently indictable sin, even if that did happen to be true. Many of them choose not to be knowable, and do it with ease.

 

I think she did know.
What she found out after he committed suicide was that he was suffering inside.

Either way, this is completely tragic.

 

My mom didn't know the troubles I went through, and she knows me very well. It was because of the great lengths I went to to hide what was happening to me.

Parents never know what is happening completely in their kids life. And obviously he couldn't tell her because he wasn't ready to come out. Not her fault.