A 10-year-old boy, Sammy Teusch has died by suicide after being bullied relentlessly at school, according to his family, who claim to have raised the alarm at least 20 times in the last year.
Sammy, from Indiana in the US, was in the fourth grade, where his parents say he suffered at the hands of playground bullies, the New York Post reports.
Sam and Nichole Teusch claim they complained to the school roughly 20 times about the bullying their son endured, stating it began when he was in primary school and continued into middle school.
However, the heartbroken parents believe Sammy endured bullying until the night of his death on May 5.
“I held him in my arms,” his dad, Sam, told a local news outlet. “I did the thing no father should ever have to do, and any time I close my eyes, it’s all I can see.
“They were making fun of him for his glasses in the beginning, then on to make fun of his teeth. It went on for a long time.
“He was beat up on the school bus, and the kids broke his glasses and everything.
“I called the school, and I’m like, ‘What are you doing about this? It keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse,’” the dad claimed.
The school district’s superintendent denied any bullying reports had ever been submitted by either the parents or the boy, according to reports.
However, he acknowledged that the school’s administrators and counsellor had regular conversations with the family throughout the year, without elaborating because of confidentiality rules.
The schoolboy’s family insisted their fears had been made clear.
“They knew this was going on. They knew this was going on,” the dad claimed.
Sammy’s grandmother, Cynthia Teusch, was furious at the district for claiming it has a zero-tolerance policy on bullying.
“They can’t just say they have zero tolerance because that doesn’t mean there is zero tolerance for bullies; their zero tolerance means that they don’t have responsibility for it,” she told reporters.
“People trust their kids with the school, but now that trust is breaking down.”
Nichole, believes her son took his life because the constant bullying—especially an unspecified incident in a bathroom last week—left him too afraid to go to school.
“He was my little boy. He was my baby. He was the youngest one,” she told reporters.
