Back in January, a Houston mother faced an unimaginable reality when she learned that her vibrant 10-year-old son k*illed himself by h*anging because he was being b*ullied at school.
Crystal Smith’s son Kevin, was found in his closet by his sister.
A Houston community is m*ourning the l*oss of 10-year-old Kevin Smith, who c*ommitted s*uic*ide after being b*ulli*ed at school. (ABC13)
He h*un*g himself while Smith was out of town.
“I just thought he was handling the situations. They wrote on his tablet to k*i*ll yourself, ‘You don’t belong here,’” Smith said, according to The NY Daily News.
But Smith never thought her fifth-grader was at the brink, especially since he always seemed happy she told ABC 13.
“Kevin was a goofy child,” Smith said. “He’s my little goof troop, I called him.”
But through his smiles, Kevin was dealing with b*ulli*es and it had become o*verwhe*lming.
“When it got physical back in November, he came home c*rying because he didn’t f*ight back and one of the boys p*unch*ed him several times coming from recess.”
S*uic*ide on the Rise.
This latest s*uic*ide is part of a growing, and d*istur*bing, trend of young Black students k*illi*ng themselves. The rate is especially high for Black girls.
Last year, a Black student in a DC boarding school reportedly k*ill*ed herself. She was only 12.
According to Fox 5 of DC, p*olice were called to the SEED School of Washington D.C. on Tuesday after the girl’s roommates found her u*nconscious. P*aramedics could not r*evive her.
Mami Buxton p*ulled her son out of SEED after he endured two years of b*ully*ing and was even allegedly s*exually a*ssau*lted by another student. She said that she was u*pset to see someone else’s child s*uffering too.
“It kind of touched me really deep because of the situation that has been happening with my son at this school,” Buxton said.
According to the Huffington Post, which reported on s*uic*ide rates in 2015, s*uici*de rates for Black elementary-age students doubled between 1993 and 2015. And the National Center for Health Statistics said that the s*uici*de rate for Black black girls ages 10-14 had tripled.
Researchers have pointed to a number of possible triggers related to d*iscrimination, b*ull*ying, and poverty.
S*uici*de rates have also jumped between 2016 and 2017, researchers found.
