Bullying partly to blame in Ottawa teen's suicide, father says
Globe and Mail
Ottawa— The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011 7:36AM
A father who is a councillor in Ottawa says that bullying was a reason his 15 year old son killed himself last Friday. Councillor Allan Hubley said that Jamie had been suffering with depression and was getting attended by doctors. He also mentioned that his friends and family were trying to help him cope with his depression and sexuality issues. The teenager was a championship figure skater and just started becoming a better singer and actor. However the family was aware he was being bullied on several occasions because he liked figure skating rather than hockey. Jamie recently tries to start a "Rainbow Club" at his high school to promote acceptance of others. The posters he made were torn down and he then was called very cruel names in the halls and online. Mr. Hubley and his wife Wendy said they hope from their tragedy, others will become more active in trying to stop kids from being bullied.
When I hear about things like this happening, it makes me really think about the affect that of our words have on people. It doesn’t just have to be physical bullying that hurts a person, it could really do damage mentally, and emotionally. The kids at school must have known about the issues Jamie had been dealing with, but they still ripped his posters and made fun of him. Every time something like this happened, must of made more and more of an impact on Jamie committing suicide. It is very wrong of anyone to try and hurt someone in any way, especially when the person has been suffering from depression. Bullying is a major problem at a lot of schools that needs to be fixed before more incidents such as this continue. There has been similar stories like this. The person had been bullied for a long period of time on the internet by people at school, and they end up taking their own life. The parents of this boy must be devastated, and looking for answers. If every school takes the time to make sure there is minimal bullying in their school, it will prevent these cases from happening.
His father should really feel guilty about this himself, because he should have taught his son how to step up for himself and don't keep every thing inside of him. He should also have communicate more with his son to find out what was going on in his daily life, instead of feeling sad when he finally lost his son.I know that the father must be very sad at the time so he blamed the death of his son on bullying, but he should really be questioning himself about what he could do to help, and know that his son's death might be caused by the lack of communication between them.
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