Monday, January 28, 2013
Bullied ... 11 year old ... Suicide
Counselors and a crisis team are in London (Ohio) Elementary School today to help students and employees deal with the news that an 11-year-old student killed herself at home over the weekend.
London Police Chief David Wiseman said Hailey Petee, who was in the fifth grade, hanged herself in her bedroom overnight Saturday. Police were called to the family’s London home on Walnut Street at 12:17 a.m. Sunday.
Wiseman, who is part of the county’s suicide-prevention coalition, said it’s been a difficult weekend for everyone involved.
London Schools Superintendant Thomas Ben said counselors will stay on hand as long as necessary.
“It’s a terribly sad day,” he said.
Hailey’s parents, Melinda Groce and David Petee, said this afternoon that their daughter has been teased and bullied by neighborhood kids for months. They are putting out a call to action for it to stop.
Hailey, her dad said, has always worn glasses, the lenses so thick they distorted the look of her eyes. And she’s always been loud, outspoken, hyper — she took medication for her attention-deficit disorder — and other kids teased her because of it.
It must be extremely difficult to be a teenager today. When I was in school my only worry revolved around homework. Oh, other worries arose, none so devastating that suicide was contemplated, however.
