Posted on 11/21/2006 6:35:33 PM PST by stm
Schoolboy hanged himself using his favourite football team scarf after complaining that he was being persecuted on the bus ride home from lessons.
Paul Moran, 13, would sometimes arrive in tears, his hair and clothes covered with food and drink thrown by other pupils, his mother said yesterday.
On one occasion his beloved Liverpool FC bag was ripped and on another he was even thrown down stairs, Carole Moran added.
Finally, after speaking about suicide to friends, the "sensitive and caring" teenager's mother found him suspended from his metal bunk bed with his Liverpool scarf, facing a poster of his favourite team.
In a further tragedy, a girl from the same school, Jenny Sykes, also 13, hanged herself eight months later after apparently becoming depressed over his death.
Detectives investigating the schoolgirl's death took away her computer after fears that she visited suicide chatrooms before killing herself.
Yesterday an inquest into Paul's death in Blackpool, Lancashire, heard that his mother had complained three times to staff at Lytham St Annes High School that he was being bullied.
Mrs Moran, 45, told the hearing: "One day he came home covered in eggs and flour and crying his eyes out. He could not understand why he was being picked on and kept saying 'Why me, why me?'.
"They even tore his Liverpool football bag which upset him. The school bus stop was right outside our house but often he would get off a few stops earlier to avoid more trouble."
One day he was pushed out of his seat on the top deck and thrown down the stairs, and on another his boots were thrown off the bus, she said.
He started avoiding the upper deck after his earring was ripped out but could still hear bullies shouting abuse at him from upstairs, and on one occasion a girl spat at him and shoved a banana in his face.
She added that his older brother Steven, 23, had offered to speak to the bullies, but Paul feared that would only make things worse.
On November 27 last year, a Sunday, just hours after he had been looking at a Christmas catalogue with his mother, his six-year-old sister, Courtney, found him hanging in his room.
She fetched their mother who dialled 999 but paramedics were unable to save him.
Following his death, police took 23 statements from other children at the school and discovered he had spoken to friends about suicide.
But although they found some evidence of bullying, there was nothing that would justify criminal action.
At yesterday's hearing, school headteacher Phillip Wood said teachers had investigated allegations that Paul had been covered in food but found he was not the only one because there had been a "food fight" on the bus.
He added: "I do not think it was aimed at Paul uniquely. The problem is that what is high spirits to some children can appear to be bullying to others."
The school had a strict anti-bullying policy which had been updated since Paul's death, he added.
Coroner Anne Hind said Paul may have been worried because the prospect of going back to school the following morning was looming.
However she recorded an open verdict, saying: "It could have been an accident, it could have been a cry for help, or it could have been a successful suicide, but Paul left no note and we will never know."
Jenny Sykes, who is not thought to have been close friends with Paul but who was apparently deeply moved by his death, was found hanged at her home on July 12.
Police said they did not find any evidence she had visited suicide chatrooms. An inquest into her death is expected to be heard next year.
Like hell.
That's exactly what I thought. The fact that his mother had been to the school 3 times to complain of the kids bullying him, proves that this idiot is lying to save his own skin. That poor kid was suffering so bad that he chose death over life. They need to hang those in the school who failed to put a stop to this < before > that poor child committed suicide!
His death is a tragedy, a horrible, useless, waste of potential by idiots and thugs.
But children have been monsters for eons. I'm sure there were Spartan kids who got their sandals laced together and swirlies in the communal fountain. The ones who survive that horror are the ones who believe enough in themselves to know that "this too shall pass," and that there is someone somewhere who loves them enough to make the pain go away.
Not all kids are aggressive enough, big enough or talented enough to defeat the bully. Sometimes the bully can beat the crap out of you regardless your efforts.
This is the real key IMO.
I like the way you describe it in terms dating back to antiquity. Which simply may be the problem. People are reverting to the barbaric ways of days long past.
Kids today may as well be sent to school, and have a gladiatorial contest to see who makes it past homeroom.
And parents failed to identify, locate and beat the living shit out of the bullies because....?
The parents were at the football game beating up the ref's or coach or team members.
My 11-year old son was coming home from school and not being excited about it anymore (a new school). After a couple more days we finally got it out of him that their was some kid picking on him. We emailed the teacher and she got back to us the next day and said she had observed some minor "behaviour problems" with the boy in class - but our son's treatment (outside the class) was not known.
She had a meeting with the kid and his parents the next day. She follows up with us to see how things have been - and they have been fine. She said "they should be - for the boy knows the consequences and they will be very severe the next time he bothers anyone".
I was pleasantly surprised and impressed.
I have no doubt that you see it that way......rest assured, if I seemingly implied otherwise, it was poor communication on my end.
I'm reminded of the state of comedy on TV today, when everything is a putdown of somebody else, or exclamations over someone's actions not being cool enuf or living up to expectations. No wonder kids feel it's okay to target others.
In the absence of any moral authority, that is to be expected.
Kids today may as well be sent to school, and have a gladiatorial contest to see who makes it past homeroom.
I'm sure that it must have felt like that to this poor boy. Sadly, I myself have been guilty of picking on the weak and the ... odd ... in my school days. I pray my Judge is more compassionate than I was.
Local TV shows a public service commercial concerning bullying. A gentle reminder for parents to instruct their kids that we must all consider the feelings of others and make everyone feel that they belong. Good advice.
The idea of losing a child is bad enough, but to imagine the desperation and self-hate he must have felt in his short life that led him to taking his own life makes it all the more tragic.
I remember I stopped riding the bus in 8th grade because it stopped being fun. Too many a**holes on the bus. Some of them weren't nice to me, altho' I don't think I was bullied per se. It just wasn't a pleasant experience, I'd rather walk home than ride the bus with those kids.
That`s true about the belief, I had older bros myself, but even more so I got shot down at school due to a speech impediment. I use to talk like Porky pig until I was about 14.
What I`ve realized pretty early on is all bullying comes from cowardice and insecurity on the part of the bully. Once you realize that, you can destroy them.
Another strange factor that comes into play though is some kids and even adults don`t want to be made fun of for that very change of heart, from going from passive to aggressive, so they continue to allow themselves to be bullied, but it`s all about controlling fear and being strong in belief.
The bully will look for that specific achilles tendon and will lean on it hard when he finds it, but if you go over the reality of your weaknesses and find the truth in it, all that is left is the bullies cowardice and he can be destroyed at will.
For example, look at Bill Clintons bullying when Chris Wallace asked him a very relevent question about his inept handling of terror which led to the deaths of 3000 people. Clinton went into attack mode, a bullying mode because of fear and cowardice. Fear that Wallace was right, and cowardice of confronting the truth of his record. It`s all diversionary tactics. Closet homosexual Tom Cruise did the same thing when Matt Lauer question him. Cruise was fearful of being exposed, but it goes withot saying that at any time Wallace and Lauer could have absolutely destroyed them at any time. Wallace could have destroyed Clinton by asking Clinton about his pardon of the FALN terrorists, and Lauer could have destroyed Cruise by asking Cruise if Scientology cures homosexuality.
Certainly there will be boys who will suicide as a means for attention. Fine.
I'll still blame the Teachers union.
F-Teachers Union!
FDR would have taken this union and burned them at the stake!
/BAH!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.