Another One: Alyssa Morgan

Alyssa Morgan killed herself last month; she was 12 years old.

Now her mother, Nicole, is telling Alyssa’s story and how the administrators and teachers at her school, Southeast Polk Junior High, failed to protect from the bullies who drive Alyssa to suicide.

Nicole says that at home, her daughter was like any 12-year-old; she loved to draw and play video games and try on her Mom’s makeup; and when she came out as a bisexual, Nicole simply told her daughter: "We love you no matter what."

But school was a different story; other students bullied her, called her names, say she was disgusting, make her feel worthless, and before long Alyssa would come home from school in tears and she began cutting herself.

 Nicole says Southeast Polk Junior High  knew what was happening, but did nothing to protect her daughter from bullies. In fact, she says that when she took her complaints about the bullying to school administrators, she was told that Alyssa needed to "toughen up."

This is the same school where, just two years ago, 16-year-old gay student A.J. Betts also committed suicide after being endlessly, horrifically bullied. See his story HERE.

But even in the light of Alyssa Morgan’s death, the school takes almost no responsibility. On April 30, Southeast Polk Community School District Associate Principal Nathan Ballagh emailed a statement to a local news station:

"Over the last four years our students and staff have stepped up our bullying prevention efforts. A lot of our efforts are led by our students who provide us (school officials) insight to what bullying looks like in our school and community and what we can do to help prevent bullying. Our students have really been the driving force and have taken ownership in preventing bullying in our schools."

Sadly, though, Alyssa’s suicide was the 15th suicide at Southeast Polk Junior High in the last 12 years; that means more than once a year … every nine months actually … a student at that school commits suicide, and the administrators think they have it handled.

I have a solution, though, that might make administrators and teachers understand the problems: spend a week being bullied by your peers. Walk the halls and be shouted at, spit upon, pushed, shoved, called worthless, fat, faggot, nigger, dyke, queer, asshole, motherfucker every single day, every single hour for at least a week.

And then imagine that happening to a twelve-year-old and telling them to toughen up.

Zero tolerance means zero tolerance.

MSN

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Take A Moment and Sign Your Name For AJ Betts ... and Others

Yesterday I reposted about AJ Betts, the young man who endured torment and bullying at school until he finally took his own life — see that post HERE. 

I told his story again because the bullying didn’t end upon AJ’s death; he wanted to donate his organs to help others who might need them, and while his heart, liver and lungs helped save a few lives, the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] declared that, because AJ was gay and may have been sexually active, his eyes could not be donated — see that post HERE.

The policy of the FDA was established some 30 years ago during the early, panicked, “It’s a gay disease” days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic and it’s well past time the policy was changed. So, I was pleasantly surprised to find a comment on that post from AJ’s mother, Sheryl Moore: 

"God bless you for blogging about my son's story. I appreciate it so much. If you and your readers oppose this outdated FDA regulation, I would urge you to PLEASE sign this petition [at Change.org]:

Change the policy of automatically excluding homosexualsfrom donation of organs and tissue, and blood donation.

Thank you, and keep-up the good work. Together, we can create change!"

So, why don’t y’all take the next second to click that link and sign that petition, in AJ’s memory?

It’s a good thing.

Even After Death AJ Betts Is Being Bullied For Being Gay

A little more than a year ago I first wrote about AJ Betts; he had become ‘Another One’ on this blog; another young LGBTQ youth who took his own life after constantly bullying and torment at school made him think going on for even one minute more would be unbearable. See that post HERE.

And just months before taking his life, AJ decided to become an organ donor, wanting his organs to be put to good use when he died. But, sadly, even after death, AJ’s being bullied again because, even although he kidney, liver, heart and lungs were given to people who needed them, his eyes will never be used.

AJ’s eyes were rejected because of a thirty-year-old Food and Drug Administration [FDA] regulation that came about at the height of the AIDS epidemic; it stated that would-be donors were ineligible to donate certain tissue if they’re believed to have a “risk factor” for communicable diseases.

Now, no one knows if AJ was a “risk factor” because no one knows if he’d been sexually active in the five years preceding his suicide. But, being a young gay man, he was automatically excluded from donating certain tissues; in fact, gay men are banned for life from donating blood because there is still the stigma of AIDS being a “gay” disease.

AJ’s mother, Sheryl Moore, finds it sad that people cannot get “the life-saving assistance they need because of regulations that are 30 years old” and she hopes that by telling AJ’s story will help to change those decade’s old regulations.

Ironically enough, the FDA does allow donations from heterosexuals who have slept with an HIV-positive person or commercial sex worker after one year, which makes absolutely no sense. Heterosexuals can get HIV/AIDS; they do contract the virus. But because AJ Betts was gay, even in death he’s being treated as less than.

Just like he was by the kids in his school. 

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Another One: AJ Betts

AJ Betts killed himself; he was just sixteen.

His mother, Sheryl Moore, is hoping his story will put an end to the bullying that she said ended his life.

"It must have been really horrible, if my son got to the point where he would hurt my husband, my daughters and I to take his own life."

Moore said she will never know exactly how horrible the bullying was.

"We had no indication that anything was wrong. He is the happiest kid I've ever met. Everybody who meets him says that."

Like most bullied teens, AJ put on a brave face, a tough exterior, and learned to smile to hide the pain. But now his family is learning that AJ, after being outed at Southeast Polk High School last year, was a target because he was gay. His friends said AJ was constantly ridiculed not only for being gay, but also because he was half African-American and born with a cleft lip.

"He's different. He doesn’t add up to what they're used to."—Noah Lahmann, AJ’s best friend

Different. Made for being taunted and teased to the point of taking his own life just to make it stop.

The only word from authorities at Southeast Polk High is that they can’t say if AJ ever reported being bullied.

Maybe he didn’t report his bullies because he thought officials wouldn't do anything about it. See, AJ Betts wasn’t the first; he was the fifth student from Southeast Polk High school to commit suicide in the past five years. 

So maybe, when the numbers start piling up and more teenagers take their own lives, maybe then the good people at Southeast Polk High will try harder to find out why. Until then, I guess high school students are disposable.

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