Another boy kills himself, and his mother talks about ‘my bullied son’s last day on earth’
CNN.com profiles a family, from Dunaire, Georgia, who has suffered from school bullies. Eleven-year-old Jaheem Herrera hung himself, after he was perpetually called “gay” at school.
Jaheem’s mom told CNN: “He used to say Mom they keep telling me this … this gay word, this gay, gay, gay. I’m tired of hearing it, they’re telling me the same thing over and over.”
But while she says her son complained about the bullying, she had no idea how bad it had gotten.
“He told me, but he just got to the point where he didn’t want me to get involved anymore because nothing was done,” she said.
[His mom] Masika Bermudez said she complained to the school about bullying seven or eight times, but it wasn’t enough to save him.
“It [apparently] just got worse and worse and worse until Thursday,” she said. “Just to walk up to that room and see your baby hanging there. My daughter saw this, my baby saw this, my kids are traumatized.”
She said Jaheem was a shy boy just trying to get a good education and make friends.
Less than a month before Jaheem’s death, a boy in Massachusetts killed himself after being bullied, harassed and called “gay.”
Suicide hotline numbers
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
National Suicide Prevention Hotline: 1-800-SUICIDE (784-2433)
Image: Flowers and stuffed animals sit at the door step of Jaheem Herrera’s home / CNN.com
thats crazy and very very sad and makes me wanna cry RIP jaheem and the mother im kinda upset about what she didnt do and could have saved her sons l ife…that
This is very tragic to hear. It is sad that this family has to grieve the death of their love one. Part of the problem within our school systems are that children are not taught about other cultures. When they hear a new dialect, they think it’s odd or funny. Did anyone know that Zora Neale Hurston wrote stories using her dialect and that Alice Walker and other intellectual writers has mimic her work. The American people has forgotten that our country today is a combination of diverse nationalities and cultures. Sad to say; but adults today are still fighting and disrespecting each other, and some refuses to find time to educate their children about respecting each other. When the parents complained to the administrators of the school, why did they not address the problem at the time. It is ironic how we address an occurring problems after something tragic happens. My deepest sympathy to this family. I myself can relate to this child pain. I have the same dialect as him