A 10-year-old boy in Indiana committed suicide after being relentlessly bullied at school, according to his family.
Sammy Teusch, 10, took his own life on the morning of May 5. He was a fourth-grade student at Greenfield Intermediate School. His parents told reporters that their son was bullied up until the night before he died.
"They were making fun of him for his glasses in the beginning, then on to make fun of his teeth. It went on for a long time," Sammy’s father, Sam Teusch, told WTHR.
As time went on, Sammy was beaten up at school. The parents went to the school with their concerns about bullying a total of 20 times.
"He was beat up on the school bus, and the kids broke his glasses and everything, and I called the school, and I'm like, 'What are you doing about this? It keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse. And it's not getting any better. In fact, it's getting worse,'" Sam Teusch said. "They knew this was going on. They knew this was going on.”
Outside of school, Sammy Teusch was bullied on social media, such as Snapchat.
"'I'm going to beat you up. I'm going to beat you up when you get to school.' Saying mean things about his (mom), which would really, really set him off," Sam Teusch told the outlet.
Over time, Sammy Teusch became withdrawn and stopped opening up to his parents about what he was going through. His parents explained that their son’s suicide likely stemmed from the fear of going to school after getting endlessly harrassed.
“Sammy was a tremendously loving, laughing, encompassing, and accepting young man. He was quick to make friends, knew no stranger, meant no harm to anyone, never sat still, had the biggest heart along with the best smile,” Sammy Teusch’s obituary states. “Sammy was loved by all, thoroughly embraced hugs, and had big plans for the future.”
Last year, Townhall covered how a 11-year-old girl died by suicide in a school bathroom days after her mother contacted her school because she was being bullied. The sixth-grade girl, Felicia LoAlbo-Melendez, was found unresponsive in a bathroom stall by another student.