A 9-year old Denver boy told his classmates last week he is gay. Four days later, on Thursday, he died by suicide, after telling his sister he was bullied badly and was told to kill himself. Jamel Myles had just started 4th grade.
“Four days is all it took at school. I could just imagine what they said to him,” Leia Pierce tells Colorado’s Fox 31 News (video below.)
“I’m just sad he didn’t come to me,” she says. “I’m so upset that he thought that was his option.”
“He went to school and said he was gonna tell people he’s gay because he’s proud of himself,” she added.
Pierce describes when her son told her he’s gay.
She said, “he looked so scared when he told me. He was like, ‘Mom I’m gay.’ And I thought he was playing, so I looked back because I was driving, and he was all curled up, so scared. And I said, I still love you,” Pierce told Fox 31.
“And he goes, ‘Can I be honest with you?'” Pierce continued. “And I was like sure, and he’s like, ‘I know you buy me boy stuff because I’m a boy, but I’d rather dress like a girl.'”
And she wants parents to be held accountable.
“We should have accountability for bullying. I think the child should. Because the child knows it’s wrong. The child wouldn’t want someone to do it to them. I think the parent should be held because obviously the parents are either teaching them to be like that, or they’re treating them like that,” she said.
The Trevor Project provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and questioning youth. Call them 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 and visit stopbullying.gov, and the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network’s (GLSEN) website for more resources.
Image: Screenshot via Fox 31