After Coming Out Of The Closet, 9-Year-Old Boy Was Bullied Into Committing Suicide

Sep 03, 2018 by apost team

Jamel Myles suffered at the hands of other students in his Denver school district. It is a tragic story about how bullying in our school system can have a severe effect on children and their parents.

Leia Pierce will never forget August 23rd, when she found her 9-year-old son Jamel lifeless, after committing suicide in their home.

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Jamel had just started the fourth grade at the Joe Shoemaker Elementary School. According to his mom, bullying played a large part of why Jamel felt he had no other option than to take his own life.

Over the summer, Jamel came out to his mom, revealing that he was gay. He did it innocent scared of what his mom might think.

"He looked so scared. He was like, 'Mom I'm gay'." Leia thought he was joking at first, but when she looked back at him, she saw that he was curled up in a ball scared. She replied, "I still love you." How else could she reply?

After coming out to her, Jamel became comfortable with his realization. He was even excited to tell his classmates.

"He went to school and said he was gonna tell people he's gay because he's proud of himself," Leia stated.

Upon Leia's acceptance, Jamel also expressed to her that he wanted to dress more feminine. He said he would rather dress more like a girl than a boy.

After four days of school, Jamel's mother found his lifeless body in their home. According to her, it was because he had been bullied at school, because he came out that he was gay. 

"It only took 4 days in school to make him want to do this," said Leia. "Jamel told my oldest daughter that some of the kids at school actually told him he should kill himself. It hurt that he couldn't come to me."

"It's hard to accept that he thought it was his only option," Leia said.

In response to this tragedy, the Denver public School system sent out a letter stating that they would provide extra social workers and crisis team to help the community and the Pierce family to work through it.

Leia Pierce wants something to come out of this tragedy. She hopes that her son's story will help raise awareness on the effects bullying can have on children, especially mentally fragile ones.

"Kids should be held accountable for bullying. They know that its wrong. The parents should be held accountable, because they either don't pay attention to what their kids are doing and saying or are doing the same to them." Leia stated.

All in all, she hopes that no one has to ever go through what she did that horrible Thursday morning, when it could have been prevented.

Let's reflect on this sad story and get the word out there to everyone that bullying should not be tolerated. How do you feel about Jamel's tragic story?