Its sad that these kids feel they have no other option but to end their lives. The schools can't, or won't, help and the parent have little influence.

[img:$uid]http://static.globalgrind.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_images/images/2011_september/470_bullied_boy_110928-001.jpg[/img:$uid]

Disabled boy commits suicide after mugging

No words.

oh God!

OMG!!!!! UGHHHH!!!!

This enrages me!!!!!!

Where does this nonsense end? There has 2 be a way 2 keep these kids safe.

Poor babe, so young to feel so hopeless.

Dietrich Bonhoeffner said "The test of the morality of a society is what it does for its children"

I say we have gone past that and now the morality of our society is measured by how our children see and value life. There is something terribly wrong with a society when a child so young has no compassion for others or when a child so young sees no point in living. Its one thing for a child to want to end their pain but the fact that children have "learned" the techniques by which to end their lives is frightening to me.

Urgh that is terrible.

Reading things like that disgusts me. How can people be so cruel?!

HotGritz said:

Its sad that these kids feel they have no other option but to end their lives. The schools can't, or won't, help and the parent have little influence.

[img:$uid]http://static.globalgrind.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/article_images/images/2011_september/470_bullied_boy_110928-001.jpg[/img:$uid]

Disabled boy commits suicide after mugging

http://www.therecord.com/...er-mugging

BULLYING VICTIM Mitchell Wilson, who had muscular dystrophy, took his own life on Sept. 6, at age 11. His parents say he was never the same after he was mugged in November 2010 by an older student at his Pickering school.

By his 11th birthday, Mitchell Wilson had already endured a lifetime of pain.

He was eight when his mother died of cancer three years ago.

The next year he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, a degenerative and incurable disease that was slowly destroying his muscles and would one day leave him paralyzed.

And last November, while on one of his prescribed daily walks, Mitchell was jumped by a 12-year-old boy he knew from his elementary school in Pickering. The older child, who was after the iPhone Mitchell borrowed from his father to listen to music while he walked, smashed Mitchell’s face into the pavement so hard he broke some of the boy’s teeth.

The attack, Mitchell’s parents say, led their son on a downward spiral that culminated in his suicide earlier this month.

“He was never the same after the mugging,” said Mitchell’s father, Craig Wilson, who found his son’s lifeless body on Sept. 6 — a plastic bag tied around the young boy’s head — when he went to wake him up for what would have been his first day of Grade 6. “Ultimately it shattered his life.”

The alleged mugger was arrested the day after the attack, charged with assault and removed from Westcreek Public School.

But the older boy’s friends remained, and they blamed Mitchell for getting their friend in trouble — following him home from school and taunting him about his slow and laboured gait.

Meanwhile, the spectre of the attack continued to haunt Mitchell, who had grown fearful of walking alone and began to suffer severe anxiety and panic attacks.

While there is no known cure for muscular dystrophy, one of the treatments is to stay as active as possible to delay the deterioration of muscles; inactivity accelerates their ruin.

Once a proud stroller, Mitchell walked less and less. His mobility decreased and he needed more help to accomplish tasks that had once been easy.

For the first time in his life, his father says, Mitchell was beginning to foresee a time when he could no longer walk. “That in turn created more depression, more anxiety.”

Mitchell became prone to uncharacteristic emotional outbursts, fights with his parents and temper tantrums.

When a few weeks after the alleged attack he said he would rather kill himself than continue to go to school, Wilson and Mitchell’s stepmother, Tiffany Usher, sought counselling and psychiatric treatment.

But their son would not open up about his feelings and treatments were unsuccessful.

As the summer wore on, Mitchell became increasingly anxious.

The start of a new school year is an especially high-risk time for youth and teen suicide, which remains the second-leading cause of death for Canadians aged 10 to 24.

Christopher Howell, a 17-year-old Hamilton student, killed himself two days after Mitchell following years of being bullied, according to his mother.

But Wilson is reluctant to attribute his son’s suicide to any single factor.

He thinks Mitchell had post-traumatic stress — exacerbated by the bullying — as well as a deepening depression about his disability.

“It was a combination of everything that ultimately caused Mitchell to take his own life.”

Wilson is also hesitant to blame Westcreek Public School for the torment his son suffered. The principal removed the accused mugger as soon as he was charged, and paired Mitchell up with an older student mentor to protect him.

“But schools can always do more for disabled kids,” Wilson added, shrugging.

On Labour Day, hours before Mitchell killed himself, he was served with a subpoena to testify against his alleged assailant on Sept. 28. Mitchell was terrified of having to face the other boy in court, his father says.

Now the charges may be dropped because Mitchell can no longer testify. Wilson and his wife say they have been told by the Crown’s office it is unlikely the case will go ahead without Mitchell.

Although they have little faith in the justice system, they are hoping for a compromise: in exchange for the charges to be dropped, they want the accused boy to be ordered to do community service for people with disabilities and — most importantly — be forced to listen to their victim-impact statements.

“I need this kid to understand the impact he’s had on this family . . . I want him to choose a different route than the one he’s on, a different path in life.”

Wilson is also hoping that by speaking to the media, visiting schools and telling Mitchell’s story he can prevent other kids from being bullied and educate people about what it’s like to live with a disability.

“Ultimately everybody has to be nicer to each other.

I think it's a great choice of his father & stephmom to make sure Mitchell's story is heard.

I'm the nanny of a 10-year old boy (and 14-year old girl). Today I saw one of his friends hang outside the window of the classroom at the 4th floor and spit on a child on the ground (who didn't notice). I called the boy and told him to stop it.

I told "my" child and asked if he ever did something like that, and he denied. I belief him.

He has two best friends that come over most of the time. So, I sort of nanny the three of them. I call them the Benetton boys, because one is white, one black and one Japanese.

When the Benetton boys are together, everything is fine, they play on the playstation or with plastic guns. However, when the abovementioned spitter kid tags along, the play is much more wild and they end up arguing with eachother or other kids in the block. I decided I only want the benetton boys to play together and not have other boys come over anymore. Just too much rivalry and being nasty to eachother.

I try to talk with the Benetton boys about teasing in the class, and they do talk about the fights that go on and who is involved. Everytime I'm shocked on how aggresive these fights can be. By discussing it with them, I hope to keep them from teasing and joining boys like the spitterkid.

What are your experiences with this issue? Because I think that kids don't really tell adults everything, because they know it's bad behaviour.

[Edited 9/30/11 14:24pm]

Shit.

so very sad that this little boy couldn't confide in someone is there no childline in Canada??

CHILDLINE - 0800-1111

funkmunki said:

so very sad that this little boy couldn't confide in someone is there no childline in Canada??

CHILDLINE - 0800-1111

Kids Help Phone.

funkmunki said:

so very sad that this little boy couldn't confide in someone is there no childline in Canada??

CHILDLINE - 0800-1111

The article says he couldn't open up to a psychologist.

......Fucked up people in an even more fucked up world....

It's a gut-wrenching situation. There was a soundbite from his dad on Canadian Public Radio yesterday, and this latest insult-added-to-injury aspect of the story was palpable. You could just hear the defeat in this guy's voice.

I would also say that the kid who mugged Mitchell better watch out and pray his anonymity stays reasonably intact. Since this story broke, I have personally overheard more than one conversation around these parts from teenagers saying they'd love to take a piece out of him.

People who bully suck.

Online(especially on the org) and in real life.

Fuck a bully.

SHOCKADELICA1 said:

People who bully suck.

Online(especially on the org) and in real life.

Fuck a bully.

..............especially the org..........Sweet....The org is a great representation of the world...By that eye mean F**KED UP...

[Edited 9/30/11 18:27pm]

davetherave6767 said:

SHOCKADELICA1 said:

People who bully suck.

Online(especially on the org) and in real life.

Fuck a bully.

..............especially the org..........Sweet....The org is a great representation of the world...By that eye mean F**KED UP...

[Edited 9/30/11 18:27pm]

Exactly.

To read about this is heartbreaking, I can't understand how a child gets the concept of suicide and then carries out the deed. If we want show our own humanity, I would suggest serious counseling and psychiatric help for the alleged bully so that he understands his crime and deals with its consequences.

what a horrible story, as well 4 the bully that's got to live with himself

I love the parents alternative punishment. However, it may not help this boy. Bullys never change because somewhere they themselves were bullied or learned from someone to be a bully.

This is so sad and close to Toronto too SMH That statistic makes so much sense too though I didn't know it before, poor kid