Carl Walker-Hoover played football and basketball, and was active in the Boy Scouts. But none of that protected him from the bullying he faced when he started sixth grade at New Leadership Charter School.
His mother, Sirdeaner Walker, says her son, 11, who committed suicide was repeatedly bullied at school.
Since early September, his mother says, Carl reported that other kids at school were harassing him. They told him he acted like a girl. They made fun of the way he dressed. They said he was gay, and they made it clear that gay people were not welcome in their midst. Carl did not identify as gay, but that just didn’t seem to matter to his tormentors.
On April 6, Carl’s mother found her son hanging by an extension cord, dead. Sirdeaner Walker says her son couldn’t stand another day of bullying in school.
A year ago an 8th grader, Lawrence King was shot and killed by a classmate in a California classroom for allegedly being gay.
THIS STORY WAS UPDATED ON MAY 4, 2009…
