Los Angeles Times: Gay teen endured a daily gauntlet

When Seth Walsh came home from school, he would open the gate to a chain-link fence, walk beneath a tall red oak tree and be greeted by five dogs and two cats.

Seth lived with two brothers and a sister, four children from three fathers who were seldom around, supported by their mother who worked long hours as a hairdresser. Their home was a rental, a few blocks from Tehachapi's main street.

He was 13, and in the eyes of his grandparents, Jim and Judy Walsh, he was just a normal kid, pushing into adolescence. They looked forward to watching him grow up and never imagined that the harassment he experienced as a gay teenager, or his suicide, would resonate across the country.

Seth's mother, Wendy, is guarding her privacy, lost in grief, and his friends are keeping quiet at their parents' instructions. Only Jim and Judy are willing to share their memories. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-seth-walsh-20101008,0,5533665.story

"I had no idea there was that much pain inside of him. He was a sweet kid who found the world cruel," Judy says, "but he didn't understand cruelty."

I think the principal is right that the problem is part of the larger culture, though it certainly permeates the school as well.

Young people mimic their parents and role models. It's clear that our country is full of hateful bigots that express their biases at home to their kids while putting on a facade of tolerance in public. Their kids, then, without the good judgment to keep their hateful opinions to themselves and, all too often, without the self-control to temper their inclinations toward violence, act out against vulnerable gay victims.

Teaching tolerance in school is very important. But, the root of this evil tree lay in the hearts of the parents and roll models that giggle when they see their kids growing up to be just as full of hate as they themselves are.

Even the mother in this story who tried to do the right thing and who loved her son without conditions could not adequately prepare her son or protect him from harm.

When will we start teaching parents to tolerate diversity and refrain from teaching hatred and bigotry? When will we start training parents what to do to protect their gay kids from a society that violently rejects them, condemns them and relegates them to a sub-class in our culture?

should pull their children out and school them at home until the child can safely return. I'm tired of hearing about gay youth being victimized. :( If the school will not act, parents must.

I'm not placing blame, I'm pointing out alternative options.

Bullies can be very sneaky.

they do. And if they don't, parents need to inform them, and/or place their children an an alternate setting until an effective method of protection can be implemented. Schools should also set up an anonymous bully tip line so that kids who tell on bullies are not singled out for revenge.

Here's more on what this child endured for years. I find it hard to believe the school did not know, in this case.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2023083,00.html#comments

"Even before he came out, he was teased enough, his grandparents say, that he was homeschooled on two separate occasions. His best friend, Jamie Phillips, says Seth, who told friends he was gay last year, was harassed long before: "Since it was a rumor that went around, everyone thought he was gay." "He started getting teased by the fourth and fifth grade," says Judy Walsh. "By sixth grade, the kids were starting to get mean. By the seventh grade, he was afraid to walk home from school because he was afraid he would get harassed. As he was walking by a classroom, a kid yelled out, 'Queer.' Stuff like that."

"We are here to celebrate Seth's life," the pastor, Ron Barker, began, "and not the circumstances that may have led to his death."

Even when it's at the core of a kid being hounded to death, this god botherer can't bring himself to speak of homosexuality in any way that might even obliquly be seen as possitive. Instead let's not mention it at all.

The kid was hounded to death, but let's all cheapen that by lumping his death (by deliberate omission) with every other meaningless teen suidice.

By refusing to tackle the matter head on, he just handed the floor to Phelps and his Westborough Willie Worriers.

>>>>>The school is reviewing its records in an attempt to corroborate the family's claim that reports had been filed of Seth's harassment by other students. The superintendent of the school district, Richard Swanson, met with a representative from a Kern County gay and lesbian group to assess the campus programs designed to encourage tolerance.

Their conclusion was that the district's measures were fairly thorough — quarterly assemblies on behavior, field trips to the Museum of Tolerance, discipline procedures for bullying, security cameras on campus — though they didn't prevent Seth's death.>>>>

The school district investigated itself and finds that it did nothing wrong.

Horseshit.

Was there a GSA at Seth's school? Why not?

A GLSEN? Why not?

Was there explicit instruction for ALL kids about homosexuality in Science class and GLBT history in Social Studies?

Uh -huh.

These things are less "suicides" than they are * murders *, imo.

More could have been done. Should have been done. That school could have been a welcoming and safe place, but it wasn't. There could have been a safe space somewhere in that school where friends and allies could have met and talked and lent support to each other. But there was no such place, so there were no such friends and allies standing with Seth. He was alone. :cry:

They see the abuse heaped on LGBT adults and they know it doesn't get any better. The reality is, this is not NEW. It's just getting airtime for once. 40% of homeless youth are LGBT. One-third of all teenage suicides.

When you debate same-sex marriage as if there were two "equally valid" sides, ban books with "two daddies" and "two mommies", and regularly murder trans adults: teenagers get the message. And the reality is, it doesn't necessarily "get better." You just get better at handling the violence and you have more mobility so you can surround yourself with allies.

but i suspect they aren't doing enough.