Ten-year-old Sammy Teusch killed himself after being bullied at school for several days
An Indiana boy killed himself after being bullied at school for several days. His family has now claimed that they complained to the school at least 20 times last year. Sammy Teusch, 10, died on the night of May 5.
“I held him in my arms,” the boy’s father, Sam Teusch, told WTHR. “I did the thing no father should ever have to do, and any time I close my eyes, it’s all I can see.”
Sam and Nicole, Sammy’s parents, claimed that they let the fourth-grader’s school, Greenfield Intermediate School, know about the bullying around 20 times. “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,” Sam said.
‘It keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse’
“He was beat up on the school bus, and the kids broke his glasses and everything,” he said. “I called the school, and I’m like, ‘What are you doing about this? It keeps getting worse, and worse, and worse.”
The school district’s superintendent, Dr. Harold Olin, claimed that no bullying report was ever submitted by Sammy or his parents. He did acknowledge that throughout the year, Sammy’s family and the school’s administrators and counsellor had regular conversations. However, he refused to elaborate due to confidentiality rules.
Sammy’s family insisted that the school knew about the incidents of bullying. “They knew this was going on. They knew this was going on,” the dad said.
Sammy’s grandmother, Cynthia Teusch, blasted the district for saying it has a zero-tolerance policy on bullying. ”That they can’t just say they have zero tolerance because that doesn’t mean there is zero tolerance about bullies, their zero tolerance means that they don’t have responsibility for it,” she told WPTA. “People trust their kids to the school, but now that trust is breaking down.”