After enduring daily taunts of being gay and having no one to turn to despite his mother's pleas to the school for help, 11-year-old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover hung himself with an extension cord on Monday, unable to cope with any more of the torture. This is at least the fourth suicide of a middle-school aged child linked to bullying this year.
Carl's mother, Sirdeaner L. Walker, said she phoned the school repeatedly since Carl began attending in September but the bullying continued.
Just two days after what she says was the worst day of her life, Walker, a breast cancer survivor, says she wants the bullying to stop.
"If anything can come of this, it's that another child doesn't have to suffer like this and there can be some justice for some other child. I don't want any other parent to go through this," she said.
Ironically, Carl, a sixth grader who did not identify as gay, would have turned 12 on April 17, the same day thousands of students will participate in the 13th annual National Day of Silence by taking a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LBGT bullying and harassment at school.
According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Center, nearly one in three youth nationwide reported either being bullied, having bullied someone, or have done both. But GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network) says rates of bullying for LGBT youth (and those labeled LGBT) are a lot higher.
GLSEN’s 2007 National School Climate Survey of more than 6,000 LGBT students found that nearly 9 out of 10 LGBT youth were verbally harassed at school in the past year because of sexual orientation, nearly half were physically harassed and a quarter were physically assaulted.
Victims of bullies become anxious, insecure and cautious, suffer low self-esteem and rarely defend themselves or retaliate. Often they feel isolated and withdrawn.
There are also long-term effects for both the victim and perpetrator of bullying. Victims as adults suffer from depression and poor self-esteem, while 60 percent of bullies in grades 6-9 had at least one criminal conviction by age 24.
The National School Safety Center defines bullying as physical confrontations and direct threats of violence, but also indirect forms such as rejection and exclusion, humiliation and name calling, manipulating friends, and more recently, hurtful messages sent by e-mail or posted on Web sites.
Want to take action against bullying? You can!
- Hang posters around your school to publicize the issue of bullying
- If you see someone being bullied, make a record of it and report it!
- Learn more about bullying while playing oneline games!
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:OO thats horriable that someone would taunt and harass such a young boy for being gay, there is nothing wrong with being gay! love is love and no one should have to go threw that for being themselves. im sure they wouldnt like it if they were beeing hurassed and taunted. i feel bad for his friends and family an 11 year boy should never, no wait scratch that NO ONE should ever feel like suicide or death is the soulutuion cause half way threwit u realize, hey i could change this it could be better but by then its to late theres no going back :[ i know what he was going threw, i have a gay best frand and he gets taunted and picked on all the time i worrie for him bunches. but thats besides the point no one should be hated on for being gay.
xoxoxo,
sarah<33
i feel like this some times but i just cant kill my self and this is the things tht prevents me from coming out
That's horrible. I don't understand why people feel the need to exploit others just because they're different. If you ask me, making fun of someone because they're gay is no different then iscolating someone due to skin color or gender; it's just wrong and Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover has proven that to us here. How many suicides and torture stories is it going to take before people give it up. It's ridiculous and makes me absolutely furious. I have several friends who are gay and/or bi and they're, as we all know, not different then us. It doesn't matter what sexual orientation, gender, or skin color people are, they're still people and they should be treated like it. Suicide is never the answer, I've been down that road and back and it wouldn't have solved anything. Instead of silence we should hear voices surrounding us, standing up for what is right, but someone has to be the first to stand...hurry, because the other kids just like Carl are waiting.
Molly
Gosh, people are so mean! I don't think being gay is an evil word or it's any of other's business. I just want to explode when people make fun of gay people. What does it do th you? NOTHING. So leave it alone!
wow that is so immature, the only reason people would bother someone about that is because they have either issues of their own or they just can't handle being kind to someone even minutely different then them.
and i hate people not liking or being scared that just because someone is gay they like everyone of their gender.... not all girls like ALL guy and not all guys like ALL girls... you know what i mean?
it just pisses me off that people cant find a real reason to be mad at someone so they pick their orientation or their race or just plain gender and take it as a bad thing. it really just gets me angry
That is aweful! Even though I don't believe that it is right to be gay, its his choice and he shouldn't have been discriminated for it! I am a full-out Christian, and I think that this is why people are starting to stop coming to church! people need to be more open to others' beliefs and orientations! it just makes me mad that this world cannot accept people for who they are.
its pathetic.... pushing someone into such dispair that they only option that they see is to end their life!
This type of behavior by anyone towards someone is just plain cruel and a stupid attempt on the bulliers part to look 'cooler' than the person who he is bullying.
SO WHAT IF THE GUY WAS GAY!!!!!!!!!! Being gay is something that a person is born with and that is that!! Bullying a person over an issue like this just says that the peoples involved aren't very intellegent. Its like bullying someone because they hold a pencil differently. -POINTLESS AND DISPICABLE-
This is terrible. Bullying is a terrible thing. Taunting someone about being gay, whether they are or aren't is wrong. Making fun of people is what people do when they feel bad about themselves. Its so wrong. Who would have thought that at the age of 11, someone would tease you about being gay. At that age, I don't think I knew the real meaning of gay. Its pathetic, this world today.
He wasn't gay though Sarah sanctuarygal109. People were just picking on him and labeling him.
And love you lots, why is is wrong to be gay? You say people should stop discriminating people for being gay, but then you say that you don't think its right to be gay? I'm sure when you die and go to heaven, you will see gay people standing around Jesus and whatnot despite what the church tells you.
Wow. It breaks my heart to see such a young kid killing himself over this bull. I wonder how the people who bullied him feels. I have been getting bullied since 1st grade, i am now in 9th grade, and i thought about suicide this year, but then i decided that if i kill myself i would never find out if my life would get any better. Im still alive today because i would like to live long enough to see if it does get better. I wish a lot more kids would think this way. This really makes me sad to think about. :(
XxstephxX