A Philadelphia family is in mourning after they say their 11-year-old son e*nded his l*ife after months of b*ullying and t*orment by his classmates.
Phillip Spruill Jr., a fifth-grader at Benjamin B. Comegys Elementary, d*i*e*d by s*u*i*c*i*d*e at his home in Bartram Village on April 5, the Philadelphia I*nquirer reported.
Spruill’s grandmother, Linda Lash–Smith, said her grandson had had i*ssues since transferring to the school back in September and had been s*uspended several times for f*ighting.
“We knew there were p*roblems, and we tried to keep encouraging him,” Lash-Smith, 56, told the outlet. “We just didn’t realize how deeply he was h*urting.”
Family members said Spruill, who s*truggled with a*nxiety, d*epression and a*ttention d*eficit h*yperactivity d*isorder (ADHD), had to constantly defend himself against b*ullies who p*icked on him because of his weight. Spruill also f*ought to protect his 7-year-old brother, who was often the t*arget of h*omoph*obic s*lurs and i*nsults.
“They would ch*ase them and call them ‘fatty and the f-ggot,’” Lash-Smith told Philadelphia Gay News of the daily b*ullying her grandsons endured.
“Children are c*ruel,” she continued. “All Phil wanted to do was play and make friends. All they wanted to do was make fun of him. He just couldn’t understand why, and it h*urt him deeply.”
Relatives have remained mum on the manner of Spruill’s s*uicide, but said it was his younger brother who made the h*eartbreaking discovery earlier this month. His sibling has been s*truggling to cope ever since.
“My p*rotector is gone,” the little one said, according to his grandma.
School district spokesman Lee Whack offered his c*ondolences to Spruill’s family in the wake of the t*ragedy but said there were “no founded instances of this child being b*ullied.”
“We always take reports of b*ullying seriously,” Whack said, telling the Inquirer that g*rief c*ounselors are now on hand at the school to provide support for students.
“The District and the Comegys school community are deeply s*addened by the t*ragedy and we never want to see something like this happen,” Whack added. “Young people have challenges and it is up to us to do our very best to support them.”
Lash-Smith claims there was little support for her grandson, however, who she said f*aced b*ullying and h*arassment on almost a daily basis. She said the boy’s parents reported the b*ullying to school officials on several o*ccasions, but their c*oncerns were ignored.
“The school didn’t do anything to stop it,” Lash-Smith said. “They just considered him a t*roublemaker, and [his mom] was just a pain-in-the-butt parent. [Phil] wasn’t given the support or resources that he should have had. We should be planning for spring and summer, not his homegoing services.”
On the day he d*i*e*d, Spruill reportedly reached out to a school counselor for help but was brushed off because she was busy handling another situation.
The g*rieving grandmother said Spruill, who she described as a “small, s*ensitive little boy in a heavy boy’s body,” never showed how deeply he was h*urting and instead d*ealt with the p*ain in silence.
“It would h*urt him to his core but He didn’t want to show it outwardly,” she said. “And he didn’t want to worry mom and dad … mostly because he knows mom and dad [were ] f*iercely p*rotective of him. He didn’t want them being burdened.”
Spruill’s family has received an outpouring of support from the community, including State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who’s spearheading new legislation to address s*u*icide and b*u*llying, Philly Gay News reported. Kenyatta has also helped secure several donors to help cover the family’s f*uneral expenses, according to Blavity.
With her grandson now gone, Lash-Smith said she hopes her family’s t*ragedy will lead to accountability.
“What we want from this is legislature to make the whole school staff accountable,” she told the paper. “They should be trained to look for children who are showing signs of d*epression so they can be sent to get support and help. And there should be zero t*olerance for b*u*llying. It shouldn’t be swept under the rug or moved aside. It’s important.”