Gay Teen Taken Off Life Support After Hanging Himself On Playground

A gay Oregon teen was taken off of life support after hanging himself in the playground of a local elementary school. Komo News reports that 15-year-old Jadin Bell attempted suicide by climbing on a playground structure and hanging himself. Family friend Bud Hill, who said his considered Bell his nephew, told the news station that the high school sophomore had been the victim of intense bullying both in person and on the Internet because he was gay. "He was different, and they tend to pick on the different ones," Hill told the news station. He remembered Bell fondly: "If someone was down and out he would walk into a room and say a couple quick words and everybody would just forget about their problems and smile. He just had a gift." The LaGrande Observer reported that over 200 people, including family members and classmates, turned out at a candlelight vigil for Bell last week. He was remembered as an outgoing member of the LaGrande High School cheerleading squad and a gentle, caring friend. "He is amazingly sensitive," pal Jody Bullock told the publication. "If he saw a wounded butterfly [as a child] he wanted to heal it ... He is an amazing young man who is smart and very social; he has a persona and a presence that you want to be a part of."

http%3A//www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/29/jadin-bell-gay-oregon-teen-hanging-suicide-life-support-_n_2576404.html%3Futm_hp_ref%3Dgay-voices



• Such a sad story. Rest his soul.

• Obamessiah, get off your lazy ass and give us what you promised. Or else.

• So much for "It gets Better". I can't believe a guy would ever want to be a cheerleader though RIP Jadin

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• [quote] I can't believe a guy would ever want to be a cheerleader though Ever think these type of comments with a few other words attached might have contributed to his wanting to commit suicide?

• I wish kids would stop doing stuff like this. Why kill yourself? Why not go to a gay help group?

• Very sad.

• Fucking breeders. And the little bastards responsible for this need to be held accountable. As far as I'm concerned it's murder.

• yes it is/

• I wonder if his bullies were at the candlelight virgil.

  Probably

• We assume there are all these resources for at risk kids but they're not--a gay deeply closeted kid would never seek out a gay resource for fear of outing himself by doing so. There need to be resources at each school that deal directly with the crisis of teen suicide. And they should do so without referring to it as a gay thing so closeted kids don't feel as though they will be outed by seeking help from such resources. A kind of PFLAG that exisits in every school that deals with at-risk suicide teens. This keeps happened and it should not. So damn sad.

• Why aren't the kids who bullied him being named and shamed? I agree--why isn't this sort of bullying that leads to suicide treated as a crime?

• Any kid that is sensitive, different, intelligent, or gay is going to be bullied at school. They are useless places where they just shove kids to get them out of the way. Does anyone really remember learning anything in elementary or high school?

• The bullies are NEVER punished. The school would have to partially admit responsibility for allowing that to happen. No one really cares. They will just call the kid mentally ill and it will be forgotten.

• There were more things going on with this kid than schoolyard bullying. I grew up in rural Mississippi, son of Southern Baptists. I knew what it was like, though I hid myself, I never came out. You didn't come out in the deep south in the early 1980s. I feel for this kid but this isn't the fucking 1800s, or even 1900s. These suicides have so much more going on than victimization. I hurt for him, but he assumes much of the blame, if blame is to be placed. I'll be called names for saying that, but sadly it's true. Hanging himself on the playground, around others to see and to be traumatized. In the end, he proved as much a bully as any kid who ever teased him.

• I'm in my 50's but I remember being horribly bullied in 7th grade to the point I was missing lots of school because I got physically ill all the time. I went to the school counselor and he told me to just buck up and take it. I hope schools are better equiped to handle this today. I remember sitting in classrooms being loudly and viciously attacked and the teachers would just act like nothing was happening. My saving grace was during the worse year, my dad's job got transferred and we moved to a place where I could start over. Otherwise I think I would've killed myself.

• I had the unfortunate experience of finding the body of someone who had hung himself on a playground in a city park about a week and a half ago. It is, as R14 said, traumatizing, and reading this article this morning brought it right back into focus. It's OK to ask for help. And if someone asks you for help - for the love of God, don't ignore it.

• R14, if you're cornered by predators out for blood, you're not in a place or mindset to put your best foot forward.

  Gez%20man%2C%20cut%20him%20some%20slack

• I agree with R14, Hanging himself on an elementary playground is very passive aggressive. He obviously wanted to hurt people (young children included) with his suicide. I also agree with R17. This boy was likely at the point where he was hopeless and angry at the world.

• R3. So right. It gets better. Except when it doesn't.

• Yup, to be strong R12. But, I realize many are not.

• r19, that is a most articulate summation of this whole problem. "It gets better. Except when it doesn't." Who knows what mental tortures this boy had? Some people are stronger than others to withstand "life," in general. Gay bullying is agony and could certainly drive someone to suicide. Life is hard enough. A dear friend of mine said that being gay is like "little turtles crawling from the sea. Some of us make it and some do not. Some drown on the shore. Some are killed. Some crawl to safety." It should never have to be that way. Each time I read about a gay suicide (of any age) it saddens me deeply. Ask not for whom the bell tolls.

• Damn. Such a sweet face.

• Bullying:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DBlzGLWqVeFQ

• [italic]There were more things going on with this kid than schoolyard bullying. I grew up in rural Mississippi, son of Southern Baptists. I knew what it was like, though I hid myself, I never came out. You didn't come out in the deep south in the early 1980s. I feel for this kid but this isn't the fucking 1800s, or even 1900s. These suicides have so much more going on than victimization.[/italic] Thanks Freeper fuck.

• How do they know he hung himself instead of getting a little help from school bullies?

• "It Gets Better" is all about getting the fuck out of school, the message that it's not going to be forever. That shit ends. You then have more options afterwards. When you're in school, you can't see anything beyond that. It seems like forever with no end in sight. You can do what you want when you get out. The state isn't going to force you to stay in a joint that's basically a prison.

• It's hanged, not hung.

• All these sad gay suicides due to gay bullying and these rich-fucker movie stars won't come out of the closet. These spoiled, pampered, rich attention-whore celebrities want their privacy (even though we all know who they are) and can't be honest for one fucking day to help change the minds of thier fan base. Fuck Hollywood celebrities who can't say 'I'm gay" when children are dying from homophobia.

• Totally agree with R28.

• It's a class issue. Miss Foster's privacy was given to her by well-paid handlers. A gay male cheerleader in LaGrande, Oregon has no privacy. Only his attackers (and their churches) have that.

• +1 to R24.

• R2, per other threads, you live in South Africa. So "Obamessiah" is neither relevant to this thread nor any of your fucking business, as he promised YOU nothing. So STFU.

• I'm with r28, and here's a video, again, that illustrates r28's point: It Gets Worse:

  http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DBlzGLWqVeFQ

• thank you, r32. DL has long had a small group of south african (white south african) racist posters. Or maybe it's just one guy....

• R28 I feel the exact same way. These teen suicide stories make me sick. The fact is that whether we like it or not, people (especially kids) look up to celebs, and when these closet cases have a platform to make a difference but don't use it because they care more about fame and money, then that's fucking pathetic. If these kids had gay role models to look up to, they wouldn't feel so bad and they would see that you can eventually have a nice life as a gay person. The best thing we can do is refuse to spend our money on closet cases who want to take from our community but do nothing to contribute to it.

• He was flaming right?

• F&F for the asshole at R36.

• I don't agree with everything R14 has posted. Parts of that post are fairly heartless. But I do think s/he has a point about the fact that hanging himself on the playground yard was incredibly cruel too. Suicide is often an act of revenge, and it inflicts incredible pain on people. With this acxt he has undoubtedly traumatized children who never harmed him in any way. This is the aspect of suicide that no one wants to discuss. Suicide is an act of brutality and cruelty too, and a person who commits suicide harms many people. I feel sick thinking about this poor kid, but I also feel sad for the kids who are harmed by his public suicide. It's all the more reason that bullying should be punished, and by that I mean the bullies parents.

• Was it on a weekend or after school hours?

• "Thanks Freeper fuck." This was OR not MS

• Hanging himself in the playgroundwas his last, most powerful protest. Those kids who bullied him AND those teachers and students who stood by and did nothing -- will never forget that a kid killed himself because of what they did. And probably for the next 4 or 5 incoming classes they'll still talk about it and think twice about bullying. Plus, the shock may also hit parents who look closer at their kids who seem withdrawn and scared to go to school and help them. Suicide is tragic and some say selfish. But this kid --like Tibetan self-immolationists -- left a powerful message with his death.

• I feel like the whole "It Gets Better" campaign fails to tell kids that making "it better" actually takes hard work. Yes, high school will end, you'll be free of that nightmare, but where do you go from there? Especially if you're poor in rural America and don't necessarily have the money to run away to college in a liberal enclave. It takes cash to escape, and if that money isn't readily available to you, it's going to be an uphill battle. I feel like a lot of kids realize this, and with no one supporting them, the post-high school future must seem brutal.

• Very curious about the "uncle" in the article. I smell rape and shamed suicide.

• [quote]Obamessiah, get off your lazy ass and give us what you promised. Or else. WTF are you talking about? It's really beyond the pale to blame this on President Obama. You are insane.

• [quote]I can't believe a guy would ever want to be a cheerleader though. George W. Bush was a cheerleader.

• [quote]I hurt for him, but he assumes much of the blame... You are truly Satanic. Just go die.

• What was that long video about? It's a half hour of some guy reading from, what, his BLOG? Is that poetry? Performance art? It is painfully "precious" and self-consciously "Aren't I clever."

• Why should these kids believe anything gets better when so many adults refuse to come out of the closet?

• He was making a protest against his white privilege.

• R45 there's a good point against it right there.

  R3

• I'm sick at this happening over & over again & nothing changes !!

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• You are one sick fuck, R14.

• These sorts of threads inevitably bring out the most cold-hearted trolls. Poor kid. RIP, indeed.

• r28 is right.

• I hope The Poop In Rome is proud of his work. Good job!

• R28 is the hero of this thread.

• Hollywood celebs, yes, but also closeted politicians/

• [quote]Family friend Bud Hill, who said his considered Bell his nephew The Nephew Troll strikes again.