Fourteen year old Kameron Jacobsen of Monroe Woodbury High School in Orange County, NY, committed suicide after suffering taunts and harassment via Facebook. Two weeks earlier, another teen, Justin Dimino, a junior who was on the football team, also committed suicide.
Via MyFox New York:
Sources said that Kameron Jacobsen of Monroe Woodbury High School was tormented by Facebook bullies who taunted him about what they thought was his sexual orientation.
Principal David Bernsley said the sense of loss is excruciating and that they are doing their best to cope.
“Our hearts go out to the families,” Bernsley said. “We’re devastated as a community.”
For Jacobsen’s family, the grief is beyond measure. Even with his death, online entries still sting. His older sister, Kierten, pleaded that people stop writing “rest in peace” entries and posting personal information about her baby brother.
There are at least four Facebook pages devoted to remembering Kameron Jacobsen.
Jacobsen’s anti-gay bullying suicide, along with the tragic suicide of openly-gay, Miltona, Minnesota eighteen-year old Lance Lundsten this past weekend, are but just two of who knows how many anti-gay bullying suicides that appear to increase in number at the beginning of school semesters. You’ll remember the more than ten anti-gay bullying suicides that we reported last September, at the start of the back-to-school season.
School and the federal government must begin to do a better job addressing this, and we al need to remember that the American people believe, as do I, that ultimately, the seed of hate comes from our churches.
http://www.myfoxny.com/video/videoplayer.swf?dppversion=6994
Sources: Teenager Kills Himself After Facebook Taunts: MyFoxNY.com
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