11 year old Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover commits suicide after repeated taunting from bullies
What is going on with our children? It just crushes my heart to read headlines about children committing suicide. Their life has barely started. It makes you wonder what has gone so wrong in those few precious years that leaves them so desperate that suicide is a viable option?
No one is reporting whether or not Carl was indeed gay, but it really doesn’t matter. Every child deserves the right to go to school and feel safe.
*NOTE* Please do not confuse this story with 11 year old Aquan Lewis that I reported on before. The only similarity between the two for certain is that they are both African American 11 year old boys. They lived in completely different parts of the country (Illinois and Massachusetts) and had different circumstances leading to their suicides.
Here are some links. I will expand as I receive and process more information…
ABC News– WHEN WORDS CAN KILL: ‘THAT’S SO GAY’
The Springfield, Mass., football player and Boy Scout was ruthlessly teased, despite his mother’s please to the New Leadership Charter to address the problem.
Sirdeaner L. Walker, 43, found Carl hanging by an extension cord on the second floor of the family’s home April 6, just minutes before she was going to a meeting to confront school authorities again.
“I am brokenhearted,” she told ABCNews.com. “We worry about the economy and about Iraq, but we need to be worried about our schools.”…
…The boy had been active in his church, taking communion on the recent Palm Sunday and playing a wise man in the Christmas play. He helped the needy…
AC360 News and Commentary (CNN)– BULLIED TO DEATH?
Mrs. Walker says other students told her son, “you look gay” and “you act gay.” She says they made fun of him for the way he dressed and that one student even threatened to kill him.
She says she called the school every week to try and get her son help. She knew how painful this bullying was for him. Even though she’s a member of the Parent Teacher Organization, she says nobody helped her son.
UPDATE APR 21, 2009
Carl’s story has gained celebrity attention thanks to Ellen DeGeneres who dedicated her GLAAD award in his honor. Here’s a snippet of a statement from Ellen’s show website (not the GLAAD acceptance speech) about Carl.
I don’t know if you heard about this story of an 11-year-old boy in Springfield, Mass. who was bullied at school. His mother says they called him “gay” and told him he “acts like a girl.” Carl Walker-Hoover could only take it for so long. And last week he took his own life. It’s heartbreaking. And it shouldn’t be happening…
…At risk kids can find help at the Trevor Helpline (thetrevorproject.org). It’s open 24 hours a day and kids can call and talk to someone who can really help…
While I’m applaud Ellen for giving attention to Carl’s tragic story, part of me just wishes that black Hollywood would step in regarding Carl Walker-Hoover and also Aquan Lewis. Where’s our passion?
