The Hate Needs to Stop Now

Please read the article below that was published on CNN.com on April 24. Another young boy, age 11, took his own life after being bullied at school and being called "gay." We can no longer stand by and allow this hate spread among the younger generations.

Please tell your friends and family about this bullying. Tell your young siblings, cousins, children, and friends. They need to know that they have support!

PLEASE HELP PUT AN END TO THIS HATE!


ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Eleven-year-old Jaheem Herrera woke up on April 16 acting strangely. He wasn't hungry and he didn't want to go to school.

But the outgoing fifth grader packed his bag and went to school at Dunaire Elementary School in DeKalb County, Georgia.

He came home much happier than when he left in the morning, smiling as he handed his mother, Masika Bermudez, a glowing report card full of A's and B's. She gave him a high-five and he went upstairs to his room as she prepared dinner.

A little later, when his younger sister called him to come down to eat, Jaheem didn't answer.

So mother and daughter climbed the stairs to Jaheem's room and opened the door.

Jaheem was hanging by his belt in the closet.

"I always used to see these things on TV, dead people on the news," says Bermudez. "I saw somebody die and to see this dead person is your son, hanging there, a young boy. ... To hang yourself like that, you've got to really be tired of something."

Bermudez says bullies at school pushed Jaheem over the edge. He complained about being called gay, ugly and "the virgin" because he was from the Virgin Islands, she said.
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"He used to say Mom they keep telling me this ... this gay word, this gay, gay, gay. I'm tired of hearing it, they're telling me the same thing over and over," she told CNN, as she wiped away tears from her face.

But while she says her son complained about the bullying, she had no idea how bad it had gotten.

"He told me, but he just got to the point where he didn't want me to get involved anymore because nothing was done," she said.

Bermudez said she complained to the school about bullying seven or eight times, but it wasn't enough to save him.

"It [apparently] just got worse and worse and worse until Thursday," she said. "Just to walk up to that room and see your baby hanging there. My daughter saw this, my baby saw this, my kids are traumatized."

She said Jaheem was a shy boy just trying to get a good education and make friends. Video Watch what experts say about bullying in schools »

"He was a nice little boy," Bermudez said through her tears. "He loved to dance. He loved to have fun. He loved to make friends. And all he made [at school] were enemies."

Bermudez said she thinks her son felt like nobody wanted to help him, that nobody stood up and stopped the bullies.

"Maybe he said 'You know what -- I'm tired of telling my mom, she's been trying so hard, but nobody wants to help me,' " says Bermudez.

After Jaheem's death, the school board expressed condolences, saying the school staff "works diligently to provide a safe and nurturing environment for all students."

Trying desperately to understand what went wrong, Bermudez asked her son's best friend to recount what happened on the day Jaheem killed himself.

"He [said he was] tired of complaining, tired of these guys messing with him," Bermudez said, recalling the conversation with Jaheem's best friend. "Tired of talking, I think to his teachers, counselors and nobody is doing anything -- and the best way out is death."

Allegations of such severe bullying surprises experts familiar with the school district. It's anti-bullying program was considered exemplary and includes programs to raise awareness and a specially trained liaison. Students are even asked to sign a no-bullying pledge. But other parents told CNN they have complained about bullying as well.

Despite recent strides towards preventing bullying in schools and increased awareness programs, a Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network study showed that 65 percent of teens are bullied each year and most believe adults can't help them.

Less than a month before Jaheem's death, a boy in Massachusetts killed himself after being bullied, harassed and called "gay."

Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, says to be effective, awareness programs need to include education about the harm that can be done by teasing someone about sexuality or perceived sexuality.

"Anti-gay language is really the ultimate weapon for a bully who wants to degrade his or her peers," she says. "And any effective response to bullying has to take that on."

Bermudez doesn't understand why the children at school couldn't learn to get along. Because of it, she'll never get to see her son grow up.

"My baby, that's my only boy, and I lost him now," says Bermudez. "He was my first child and ... to lose him 11 years after, he didn't live his life."
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She hopes her son's death will result in positive changes that will help other kids being bullied.

"Those that are being bullied -- they need to talk to their parents, they need to not hold back," she says. "I lost my son and now something has to be done."

By Mallory Simon

Sirdeaner Walker on Ellen

On April 6, 11-year-old Carl Walker-Hoover took his own life as a result of constant homophobic taunting at school. He was in the 6th grade and had been subject to this bullying since the fall. Carl was too young to know what his sexuality was, but the name-calling and teasing affected him deeply, as it would any child.

Bullying needs to stop, and the homophobia needs to stop. Unfortunately, kids learn this behavior from their guardians. It is scary that people are teaching their children that it's okay to hate others for being different than themselves. I believe this hatred comes from fear, and I only wish that every person could know a gay person, so that fear of the "unknown" could dissipate.

Please watch the interview below of Sirdeaner Walker, Carl's courageous mother. She truly is a beacon of strength, and I believe we can all learn something from her.

THE STORM!!

First watch this:




Then watch this:

A Gaythering Storm from Jane Lynch

Mom: Son Bullied At School Before Suicide

From http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/19137836/detail.html



BOSTON -- The mother of an 11-year-old boy who hanged himself says her son was tormented by classmates who bullied him ceaselessly, according to the Springfield Republican.

Sirdeaner L. Walker found her son, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, hanging by an extension cord on the second floor of her Springfield home on Monday night. Walker said Carl, a sixth-grade student at the New Leadership Charter School, had been taunted and threatened by classmates for weeks before he killed himself.Walker said Wednesday that bullying in schools cannot be tolerated any longer by parents and administrators."I just want to help some other child. I know there are other kids being picked on, and it's day in and day out," said Walker, 43.

She said that she contacted the school repeatedly over the last six months to ask teachers to intervene after learning her son had been targeted by students. Walker said her son’s classmates called him gay on a daily basis, made fun of his clothes and threatened to harm him, according to the Springfield Republican.

The 43-year-old, who had just returned from a church service for her son, said Carl was a Boy Scout who played football and basketball. Walker found her son’s body when she went upstairs to check on him on Monday."It was the worst experience of my life, and I'm a breast cancer survivor. Four years, it was four years ago I had breast cancer," Walker said.

According to the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center, almost 30 percent of youth in the U.S. are involved in bullying as either a bully, a target of bullying, or both. The Resource Center also reports that a survey of students in grades 6-10 shows that 13 percent report having bullied other students, and another 11 percent said they were the targets of bullying.

Walker said Carl attended Alfred M. Glickman Elementary School until the fifth grade, but he had a hard time making new friends when he transferred to the New Leadership School.

Walker said in a recent incident, her son was harassed by his classmates after he bumped a TV with his backpack that bumped into a girl. Walker said the girl threatened her son with harm, and administrators did not do enough to stop bullying against Carl."I called there every week," she said.

According to Walker, school officials decided to try to mediate the conflict between Carl and the girl by having them eat lunch together for a week. She said the plan was poorly conceived and failed to help her son."If anything can come of this, it's that another child doesn't have to suffer like this and there can be some justice for some other child. I don't want any other parent to go through this," she said.

Henry M. Thomas III, chairman of the school's board of directors, failed to return repeated calls from a Springfield Republican reporter seeking comment.

A report released by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health on Wednesday showed that the suicide rate among young male adults in the state rose 28 percent in 2007. The category, however, does not reflect deaths among teenagers and students Carl’s age.

The New Leadership Charter School will offer grief counseling to students and staff on Monday."The NLCS family has suffered a major loss," said a statement on the school’s Web site.

Go IOWA!

April 3, 2009 (CNN) -- The Iowa Supreme Court struck down a state law Friday that banned same-sex marriage.
Larry Hoch, left, and David Twombley, one of six couples that filed suit, celebrate Friday at a news conference.

Iowa becomes the third state in the nation to allow same-sex marriage, after Massachusetts and Connecticut.

Friday's decision upheld a 2007 ruling by a lower court that Iowa's 1998 law limiting marriage to heterosexual couples went against the state's constitution. It becomes effective in 21 days.

"This is a great day for civil rights in Iowa," said attorney Dennis Johnson, a co-counsel with Lambda Legal, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of six same-sex couples seeking to marry in Iowa. "Go get married. Live happily ever after," he said at a news conference where there was loud clapping among plaintiffs.

Other organizations were not pleased. "It's, quite frankly, a disaster," said Brian English, a spokesman for the Iowa Family Policy Center. "Obviously, we're extremely disappointed. We're saddened, perhaps a little bit surprised in the unanimous decision that the court handed down."

The state's highest court determined that "the Iowa statute limiting civil marriage to a union between a man and a woman violates the equal protection clause of the Iowa Constitution," court spokesman Steve Davis said in a written statement. Read PDF of court ruling

"The decision strikes the language from Iowa Code section 595.2 limiting civil marriage to a man and a woman. It further directs that the remaining statutory language be interpreted and applied in a manner allowing gay and lesbian people full access to the institution of civil marriage," the statement on the court's Web site says.

The Iowa Supreme Court said it has the responsibility to determine if a law enacted by the legislative branch and enforced by the executive branch violates the Iowa Constitution. "The court reaffirmed that a statute inconsistent with the Iowa Constitution must be declared void, even though it may be supported by strong and deep-seated traditional beliefs and popular opinion," the court said.

Polk County District Judge Robert Hanson found that the law violated the Iowa Constitution's guarantee of equal protection, and hurt gay and lesbian couples "in numerous tangible and intangible" ways

"Civil marriage in Iowa is the only gateway to an extensive legal structure that protects a married couple's relationship and family in and outside the state," Hanson ruled in Des Moines.

"Iowa reserves an unparalleled array of rights, obligations and benefits to married couples and their families, privileging married couples as a financial and legal unit and stigmatizing same-sex couples."
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The case was joined on appeal by several state lawmakers who opposed Hanson's ruling, calling it "a mockery of the judicial system." They argued that the ruling stepped on the state Legislature's authority by using the courts "to effectuate fundamental changes in public policies regarding marriage."

Legislatures in two New England states, Vermont and New Hampshire, have taken steps toward legalizing same-sex marriages.

The Vermont Senate and House have voted to legalize same-sex marriage -- the House voted Thursday night -- but Vermont's governor has said he will veto the measure. New Hampshire's governor has signaled his opposition in the past.

Vermont, New Hampshire and New Jersey allow civil unions for gay and lesbian couples.

Nationwide, the issue of same-sex marriage remains highly divisive. A June 2008 CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll found that 44 percent of adult Americans believe gay marriage should be recognized by law as valid; 53 percent are opposed.

The issue took center stage in the largest U.S. state in November, when California voters narrowly approved a proposition amending the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage. California had been issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples since a May 2008 ruling by the state Supreme Court legalized the unions.