Charles Robbins, Executive Director & CEO, The Trevor Project
and Eliza Byard, PhD, Executive Director, the Gay, Lesbian and
Straight Education Network The impacts of language and behavior
can be deadly, especially in a school environment where young
people are already highly impressionable and vulnerable.
Unfortunately, this difficult lesson has been conveyed many
times when young people resort to drastic and permanent measures
to escape the despair of enduring constant bullying and
harassment at school. It is deeply disturbing that on April 6,
Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, an 11-year-old sixth-grader from
Springfield, Mass., hanged himself with an extension cord in his
family’s home after being subjected to continuous anti-gay
bullying and harassment at his middle school. It is equally as
disheartening that on April 16, less than two weeks later,
Jaheem Herrera, an 11-year-old fifth-grader from DeKalb County,
Ga., also hanged himself at home after being the subject of
anti-gay taunts from his classmates. These