9 year old boy commits suicide after being bullied for coming out gay

DENVER, Colorado: A 9 year old boy committed suicide after his mother says he was bullied after he coming out as gay to his classmates.

Jamel Myles’s mother told KDVR that her son died by taking his life at their home after he was bullied when he came out as gay.  Leia Pierce told KDVR that her son had told her “Mom, I’m gay” as she was driving her car.

Thinking it was a joke, she looked at the back seat to find Jamel looking scared. Her reply to him was “I still love you”.

Jamel had just started 4th grade at Joe Shoemaker Elementary School last week and wanted to tell his classmates his news.”He went to school and said he was going tell people he’s gay because he’s proud of himself,” his mother said.

After only 4 days of coming out, Jamel commited suicide at his home and his mother says it was due to him being bullied at school.

“Four days is all it took at school. I could just imagine what they said to him,” Pierce said. “My son told my oldest daughter the kids at school told him to kill himself. I’m just sad he didn’t come to me.”

Denver Public Schools sent letters out to families about the incident on Friday. The school district claims that they’re continuing to offer support to Jamel’s family and that they have provided extra social workers & crisis teams for students.

The Denver Post has confirmed that Jamel did indeed take his own life.

I wish schools wouldn’t wait for such a horrific thing to happen to a child before providing extra social services or educating children/teens about homosexuality. Schools should teach children about homosexuality, and that no matter what they were raised to believe by their family, it’s NOT okay to bully other children for being gay and/or different.

Heartbreaking.