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Carl Joseph Walker Hoover Suicide: Bullying to Blame
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by Tina Kells | April 10, 2009 at 03:04 pm
3798 views | 18 Recommendations | 15 comments
Carl Joseph Walker Hoover was only 11 years old when he took his own life and now his parents are speaking out about the brutal bullying that they blame for his suicide. Carl Joseph was an active student at the New Leadership Charter School, an athlete, and a boy scout - he had a promising future.
Carl Joseph's mother Sirdeaner Walker recounts the nightmare of finding her young sons dead body as she pleads for schools and politicians to take the issue of bullying more seriously. Carl Joseph Walker Hoover was so overwhelmed by bullying that he committed suicide by hanging himself with an extension cord.
His mother found his broken little body, living every parent's worst nightmare. Sirdeaner Walker, who was active at Carl Joseph's school as a member of the parent teacher organization, was aware that her son was being bullied and experienced repeated frustration at getting the administration to do anything effective about it.
Carl played football, basketball, and was a boy scout -- but that didn’t stop other kids from picking on him, his mom said. Students called him gay and made fun of him for the way he dressed.
Sirdeaner Walker said she began phoning his school repeatedly when Carl first told her about the bullying last September, but she says the school was unresponsive.
Sirdeander Walker: He was being teased at the school - he was being made fun of - he was being bullied. A lot of it surrounded by "you act gay," "are you gay."
Walker, captain of the 6th grade parent teacher organization says the bullying has been going on all year -- she knew Carl had been upset by it and had alerted the school. But walker says ithad escalated in recent weeks.
Sirdeaner: He said a gang threatened to kill him.
And more recently when he got into a tussle with another girl in the hallway.
Sirdeander: The girl at the school then started threatening him and "I'm going to beat you up and I'm going to kill you.
Walkers says a school mediator got involved and told the Carl and the other girl that they needed to eat lunch together for the rest of the week to work it out.
The New Leadership Charter School in Springfield, MA will be holding a carnation drive and fund raising walk in honor of Carl Joseph Walker Hoover. The school held a vigil in memory of Carl Joseph on April 9, 2009. The public and press were not permitted on the school grounds and the school parking lot was packed with cars.
...media were prevented from attending a vigil at the 180 Ashland Ave. school Thursday night that was held in relation to Carl's death, even though the school is publicly funded.
As vehicles packed with parents and children drove onto the school parking lot, acting school Director Nancy J. Cote stepped to the curb and said media weren't allowed.
"I have no comment," Cote said, asked her thoughts on Carl's death.
She referred questions to Peter J. Daboul, the newly elected chairman of the school's board of directors. He confirmed the school gets public funds, but he didn't know how much or the total of the school's budget.
"It's a private event ...," said Daboul, who wasn't at the vigil.
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at 15:19 on April 10th, 2009
This is so sad and tragic. My heart goes out to his whole family, especially his mum. I hope that his death hangs over the heads of everyone who bullied him forever because this is such a sad waste of life.
at 15:28 on April 10th, 2009
For children bullying is a very tough and painful experience to go through.Fear takes over their whole existance. A lot of young people seem to be suicidal when bullys pester the life out of them.The victims suffer and the bullys get help to stop their weaknesses.
at 16:38 on April 11th, 2009
I am so saddened by this and schools need to start taking a REAL active approach to bullies. bullying kills.
at 10:58 on April 13th, 2009
if everyone would simply come out and stop their denial, then we wouldn't have this bullying.
the bigger the homophobe, the more deeply closeted the queen.
the kid(s) that bullied him need to come out and come out now, before more people get hurt. if they don't, then they're not only hurting others, they're hurting themselves.
peace and long life
T'POW
at 15:37 on May 12th, 2009
Oh yeah, "coming out" would have solved everything. (it was never mentioned whether Carl was or was not gay. It was simply the perception of the bullies)
If he would have just come OUT of his closet, then all those homophobes would have just left him alone.
What planet do you live on? This would have simply reinforced their own insecurities & then they would have gotten a crew of them and beat the living tar out of Carl.
Peace & Long Life? That would be nice, but it's not possible where fear lives.
at 11:21 on April 13th, 2009
I can relate to this story, being an object of bullying during much of adolesence simply because I did not like to fight, over the fear that I might hurt another.
But that was during another time (60's) and when we used our fists. Things are much different today. Kids these days think nothing about using a weapon or the ramifications involved resulting in a death.
It should be interesting to point out that during my younger days, a parent, teacher, policeman could legally dicipline a child or give a kid a good swift kick in the pants whereas today, they would be brought up on charges for assault and abuse.
SAD
at 12:34 on April 21st, 2009
I completely agree with you.
at 13:01 on April 13th, 2009
My heart goes out to Carl's Mother and family. What will it take to stop bulling in our schools and playgrounds?
at 15:12 on April 13th, 2009
Bigger Bullies = Parents
at 14:02 on April 15th, 2009
We must all get to the root cause here and its discipline in the class and school. Policy is established at the Board level and administered by school/class administrators. The problem is systemic and in a lot of cases discipline is not enforced because there is no record of a student's "profile" or no recording of the incidents. You would think that in today's innovative computer centric society we would have this problem resolved but we do not. Technology is not in our schools or our public safety systems. You can be sure that this "bullying" was happening over a period of time and there is "no record" of the students complaints, the teachers observance, the Principal's involvement or the parent's phone calls. What about the School nurse? Oh, yes I know "no record" I have worked in school district's where they "never activated the dicipline module" in the student information system so teachers never recorded anything. This is a elementary school so what do you think is going on at the high school level. When students do not feel safe they do not learn but we know that don't we. This is a community issue and it will take public health workers, public safety, teachers, parents and administrators to resolve. Create digital student profiles and maintain proper records and escalate these issues electronically to the appropriate staff and hold them accountable to act. It should be a law! Our children deserve it and the taxpayers demand it!
at 08:17 on April 17th, 2009
There is absolutely no excuse for the existence and indeed flourishing of bullying in our schools. Anti-harassment protocols found in most schoolboard policies and child abuse statutes on the books in the 50 states should be enough legal ground to deal with this scourge. Yet as seems to be the case with New Leadership School--what kind of leadership are the kids learning there--and schools across the nation, including the school in my local area, school officials are impotent when it comes to protecting our children. Are they afraid of the parents of the bullies, afraid to take a stand, afraid to admit there is a bully problem in their precious school? Rather than take on this problem, this daily threat to the children they are responsible for, school officials whimp out and just let the kids terrorize and victimize other kids. Bullying is doing more damage to our children, the victims, the witnesses, and perpetrators alike, than almost any other social ill. Where are our law enforcement and so called justice system? Laws are being broken multiple times a day by adults who are responsible for our children's welfare and fail to provide a safe environment for our children. They know of the threat to specific individuals and are inept at thwarting that threat and in frequent cases do not even try to intervene. It is a shameful situation. If schoolboards and school officials cannot deal with this problem, then get out of the way and let us create a school environment where first and foremost our children are safe. Most of our school officials serve at tax payer expense. Let us replace them with members of law enforcement in a marshall law situation. Then let us find personel with ethics and backbone for whom child safety has a higher priority than standardized test scores . Maybe then we parents could feel confident our chilren are safe while at school, and beneficial learning can take place.
at 12:33 on April 21st, 2009
I feel really sorry for this boy, I can't believe that the school didn't do anything about. It just irks me that so many people are bullied by others who can't tolerate the fact that not everone is like him/her. I feel sorry for the family and I hope that maybe they will be able to recover from this tragedy.
at 04:52 on April 24th, 2009
Yet another one, just 11, so sad ...
at 05:45 on April 29th, 2009
iam really sad about this sad situation
at 15:44 on May 12th, 2009
Carl was everything they wanted to be. They couldn't be "like" him & still be cool in their friends eyes, so they joined the group and one by one broke his spirit.
I love how after the fact, the school held a carnation drive for him & had a vigil.
If they would have put that much effort into instilling the values of loving thy neighbor... accepting our differences... live & let live.
There is just always so much effort after the fact. Too little too late.