Years of anti-gay bullying drove a 14-year old teen boy from Williamsville, New York (near Buffalo), to succumb to suicide. Jamey Rodemeyer was called “gay,” and was told by his classmates they would be happier when he was dead. Some students used FormSpring, a social media site that excels for its users’ ability to remain anonymous, to deliver their hate speech. Rodemeyer had recorded an It Gets Better video, and also expressed his feelings about his bullying in another video posted to YouTube. Rodemeyer’s parents said they had worked with his school to stop the bullying, and said this year he seemed happier, but his classmates, according to this news video from WGRZ, say otherwise.
Buffalo News reports:
“I always say how bullied I am, but no one listens,” he wrote Sept. 9. “What do I have to do so people will listen to me?”
Just over one week later, Jamey was found dead outside his home of an apparent suicide.
In the months prior, he routinely blogged about school bullying and thoughts of suicide in between upbeat posts about his pop star idol Lady Gaga and the ordinary types of teen rants typical for kids his age.
On Sept. 8, he wrote: “No one in my school cares about preventing suicide, while you’re the ones calling me [gay slur] and tearing me down.”
He put up a separate post that day letting everyone know it was National Suicide Prevention Week.
Then he posted the lyrics to a song by Hollywood Undead:
I just wanna say good bye, disappear with no one knowing
I don’t wanna live this lie, smiling to the world unknowing
I dont want you to try, you’ve done enough to keep me going
I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine for the very last time
On Saturday night, he posted a lyric from Lady Gaga’s song “The Queen” on his Facebook page: “Don’t forget me when I come crying to heaven’s door.”
Then around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Jamey posted two final messages to his main public Tumblr blog. One said he really wanted to see his great-grandmother, who had recently died, and one offered thanks to Lady Gaga.
That was his last entry.
…
Jamey is the second Williamsville North High School student known to have committed suicide since 2010. Joe Chearmonte, a junior honor student, died in February of last year.
Buffalo News also published these comments from Rodemeyer’s FormSpring account:
“JAMIE IS STUPID, GAY, FAT ANND UGLY. HE MUST DIE!” read one post.
Another read: “I wouldn’t care if you died. No one would. So just do it 🙂 It would make everyone WAY more happier!”
http://c.brightcove.com/services/viewer/federated_f9?isVid=1
In his It Gets Better video, Rodemeyer said he “came out for being bi and got so much support” from his friends.
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