Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Another One: Billy Lucas


I'm not saying he was a gay kid, because he never said he was a gay kid.
He was just different. And taunted and bullied for being different.
So, finally, Billy Lucas had enough, and the fifteen-year-old boy....take a moment and say it again....slowly....fifteen....year....old.........boy....took his own life rather than continue to be ridiculed and bullied.
Students at Greensburg High School say it was common knowledge that kids bullied Billy Lucas, and they said it was getting worse. So bad, in fact, that last week Billy Lucas' mother found him dead in the barn.
He'd hung himself.
"People would call him 'fag' and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he's different basically," said student Dillen Swango. "They said stuff like 'you're like a piece of crap' and 'you don't deserve to live.' Different things like that. Talked about how he was gay or whatever."
And, that of course, being gay, doesn't deserve to live.
Greensburg High School Principal, Phil Chapple, doesn't deny that students are bullied in his school, but he says he didn't know Billy was one of the victims. "We were not aware of that situation," he said.
Well, guess what, Prinicpal Chapple, it's your job to be aware of that situation, because it affects all of your students. How dare you casually say that you know bullying goes on? How dare you act like it's just kids being kids?
And then killing themselves.
See, Principal Chapple, on a memorial page created to honor the all-too-short life of Billy Lucas, it seems that many people knew he was being bullied and ridiculed and taunted because he was assumed to be gay. How is it that so many other people knew, yet you had no idea?
"We're discussing where we are going. Where we are looking to establish a committee," said Principal Chapple.
Yes, start a committee, have a few discussions, and then go back to business as usual until another kid gets bullied to death.
Wake up, people.
This shouldn't be happening.
Not again.

7 comments:

  1. I hate reading cases like this in the news. When will the "adults" understand this is not how things have to be? When is it enough?

    ReplyDelete
  2. It'll be enough when we're all dead, I guess.

    I'm sure Focus on the Family is pleased. Just think how awful it would be if there'd been an anti-bullying program at his school that was inclusive of LGBT students! Billy might still be alive, flaunting his perceived, sinful, sexual orientation.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This really bothers me. The school should be watching and paying more attention

    ReplyDelete
  4. I watched a news clip about this after posting my comment. The principal obviously was aware of the situation and did nothing:

    "He was one that, you know, people found out who he was."

    "Sometimes he created an atmosphere around him kinda like a . . . uh . . . a little tornado, you know, because he went around doing things that, you know, made . . . made . . . made dust fly, I guess."

    In other words, as the old line goes, "he brought it on himself."

    Bullying may have pushed 15-year-old to suicide

    ReplyDelete
  5. EVERYONE PLEASE email CNN to cover the horrible Child Death and Cover-Up of Billy Lucas.

    Link: http://www.cnn.com/feedback/tips/newstips.html

    This isn’t about BEING gay, but about being PERCEIVED as gay. The locals aren't holding anyone accountable. They are in denial about a child's death.

    The Principal denies knowing of that which is common knowledge among students.
    The mindset of the bullies, their resulting actions, AND the inactions and the denial by Principal Phil Chapple is the issue here. This was Common Knowledge. The Parents of the Bullies and the Educatiors are ultimately the ones responsible for this death. They did not condemn nor control the atmosphere of hate. This was not the first such incident.

    It is as clear as a crystal ball that a community wide denial and cover up of a PERCEIVED gay 15 year old child being pushed to suicide by that very same community’s people is going on in full swing. You own this Greensburg! This mindset that it is Perfectly Okay to harass a child who is perceived as gay to the point of taking his own life, originates with, is perpetuated by, is endorsed by, and is denied by the Parents, and the Educational and Community Leaders of GREENSBURG, INDIANA, U.S.A.

    Greensburg, Indiana is “The United States Capitol City of Hate!!!”

    \http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp3qlx1D_bA&feature=player_embedded

    http://www.fox59.com/news/wxin-greensburg-student-suicide-091310,0,1101685.story

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgsqssKwP4&feature=player_embedded

    ReplyDelete
  6. And it's not just perceived gays who are victims. Last year a girl named Phoebe Prince became the target of bullying from a bunch of girls because she had the audacity, as a sophomore, to date a senior on the football team. Eventually she hanged herself in her bedroom closet. And in the aftermath, everybody in authority in the high school in western Massachusetts claimed to be just as clueless about what was happening as the people in Greensburg are doing now.

    Adults have to stop bullying, and adults have to stop harassment of gays.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Anonymous7:21 PM

    True story - I and my partner have a son who is now 19 - when he was 16, he was being bullied by a wanna-be gang leader in school. The school personnel ignored it, or tried to protect the bully. So I told him to attack him when he was alone - turned out he had asthma and sucked at fighting. Problem solved. He was arrested a year later for (trying) to intimidate his mother.

    ReplyDelete

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