The mother of a 9-year-old boy said bullying he endured after coming out as gay led him to kill himself last week.
Jamel Myles was a fourth-grade student at the Joe Shoemaker Elementary School in Denver. His mother, Leia Pierce, told The Denver Post that he came out as gay this summer and began wearing fake fingernails on Aug. 20, the first day of school.
Pierce found her son’s body on Thursday, just three days after school had started, and tried to revive him. He was pronounced dead at the Swedish Medical Center, according to a report from the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner. The manner of death, according to the report, was suicide and did not involve a firearm.
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Pierce, who told both the Denver Post and NBC's local Denver affiliate that her son was bullied for being gay, took to Facebook to express her pain and plead for an end to bullying.
“I lost a reason to breathe ... my heart, my sunshine, my son... he was being bullied and i didnt know. Not till it was to late.. i wish i knew everything so i could've stopped this... i shouldn't be having to bury my son he is only 9, ” Pierce wrote in a public Facebook post on Aug. 24, a day after her son’s death.
“I want justice for my son and the only way to get that is to touch people’s hearts and tell them if we love more it will be harder to hate, ” Pierce wrote in another Facebook post. “I taught all my kids we are all the same and he treated people as equals because he was taught love.. so teach your kids love please.. stop bullying.”
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A day after Jamel’s death, Christine Fleming, the school principal, sent a letter to parents expressing extreme sadness over this unexpected loss for our school community.
Our thoughts are with the student’s family at this time, Fleming said. We will continue to process this sad news as a school community.”
Then on Monday, the district sent out a statement saying it is deeply committed to ensuring that all members of the school community are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or transgender status.
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It is critical that our students receive all the supports they need to learn and thrive in a safe and welcoming environment. Our formal policies and practices reflect this commitment to ensuring that our LGBTQ+ students can pursue their education with dignity — from policies and training to prevent and stop bullying to formal policies and guidance materials that fully respect gender identity (including use of preferred pronouns and restrooms), the statement continued.
Jane Clementi, co-founder of the Tyler Clement Foundation, which works to end bullying in schools, workplaces and faith communities, spoke out against the pervasiveness and dangers of bullying and harassment. It is named after her son, Tyler, who was gay and killed himself in 2010 after enduring online bullying.
“Over and over again we see that vicious harassment can and does result in death, ” Clementi told NBC News. “It should not take the death of a child for us to do the right thing and treat every human being with respect, kindness and the dignity they deserve.”
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“All adults, but especially, teachers, coaches and school administrators, must take action to protect the safety of its students, ” Clementi said. “The Tyler Clementi Foundation encourages all school districts to develop a plan to prevent bullying and stop this cruelty before it starts.”
Clementi also said it is important for parents to “create a safe, encouraging and loving home environment for their children, ” a space where they know they have “their parents' support to be who they were born to be, able to love who they were created to love.”
“Children are most likely to thrive when they have the physical and emotional space to learn about who they are and when they are empowered by supportive adults to embrace their various, unique attributes and identities, ” Furia said.
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“It’s very difficult to say that parents or teachers should do X to ensure that more tragedies like this one don’t keep happening, because it isn’t about one thing that can be done or said when a child comes out to an adult, ” Furia added. “Instead, it is about an ongoing environment of support and acceptance for the identity of every individual by both peers and adults.”
In addition to families and schools, Clementi said religious organizations can also play in helping put an end to bullying — especially anti-gay bullying.
“I would also encourage faith communities to stop perpetuating the misguided teachings and traditions of basis, dogma and discrimination that devalues the human spirit and causes so much pain and despair, ” Clementi said. “I believe that love does not harm, and it should not be used to make someone feel broken, less than or separated from God because of who God created them to love. This would have a huge impact on our LGBTQ+ youth.”
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The Trevor Project offers multiple resources for LGBTQ youth in crisis, including the TrevorLifeline, a nationwide, 24/7 crisis and suicide lifeline: 1.866.488.7386.The Denver mother whose 9-year-old son killed himself last week, allegedly after being bullied because he came out as gay, called for an end to the type of torment she said her son faced.
Those bullies are the reason my son's not with me, Pierce said in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday. My daughter told me, he came home and told her, kids at school were telling him to kill himself, she said.
Pierce said her son, Jamel Myles, was the kindest, most gentlest soul I've ever met. She said when Jamel told her he was gay, she told him she still loved him.
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We have to stop bullying and teach people it's OK to love each other, Pierce said. ... We have to stop hating each other for differences, differences that make us equal and unique.
Pierce found the body of Jamel, a fourth-grade student at the Joe Shoemaker Elementary School in Denver, on Thursday, and she could not revive him. He was pronounced dead at the Swedish Medical Center, according to a report from the Denver Office of the Medical Examiner. The manner of death, according to the report, was suicide and did not involve a firearm.
A day after Jamel's death, Christine Fleming, the school principal, sent a letter to parents expressing extreme sadness over this unexpected loss for our school community.
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Then on Monday, the district sent out a statement saying it is deeply committed to ensuring that all members of the school community are treated with dignity and respect, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or transgender status.
Pierce said Jamel attended Joe Shoemaker Elementary last year, but before that he attended a different school. She said her son told her he was gay this summer during a car ride to Pierce's mother's house.
My kids are just in the back seat playing around, and all of a sudden my son goes, 'I'm gay, ' Pierce recalled. Everyone went quiet, you know, they thought he was playing.
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I looked back at him, and I was like, 'What?' And he goes, ‘I'm gay, ' and I was like, 'I still love you.' And he smiled, and he said he loved me too, and we just kept going, she said.
Among those expressing sadness and outrage over Jamel’s death was actress Laverne Cox, who is transgender. She tweeted Tuesday: This has to stop happening. It just must stop. Our bullying culture is killing children.
Amit Paley, CEO of The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth, said if people see someone being bullied or suspect it is happening, they should step in and make sure the person being bullied feels supported.
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We know that just one person in an LGBTQ young person's life can make a huge difference, Paley said. They can reduce their risk of suicide by 30 percent, and so we would encourage everyone to be that person.
Lesbian, gay and bisexual youth are more likely than their straight peers to report being bullied at school and online, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the center estimates they are four times more likely to report having attempted suicide.
Everyone wants to talk about suicide right now, because my son passed away, but no one wants to talk about the actions that caused him to do that, which was bullying, she added.
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I didn't care. He could be whatever he wants to be. I'm still going to love him, ” she said. “I wish everyone else could have loved him.
The Trevor Project offers multiple resources for LGBTQ youth in crisis, including the TrevorLifeline, a nationwide, 24/7 crisis and suicide lifeline: 1.866.488.7386.
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