12-Year-Old Commits Suicide After Bullies Say He’d Go To Hell For Being Gay
A seventh-grader in Tennessee committed suicide after classmates made fun of him for how he dressed and saying that he’d go to hell for being gay.
Eli Fritchley took his own life November 28. He was a student at Cascades Middle School in Bedford County. He played trombone and was apart of the schools marching band, according to local TV station WKRN.
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According to his parents, Fritchley wasn’t scared of being himself. “He didn’t care, or at least we thought he didn’t care, and that’s what’s really difficult for us because we thought he didn’t care,” his parents expressed to the outlet.
His parents also explained how Fritchley loved to be free and paint his nails and that his favorite color was pink. The parents also say he was a major Spongebob fan.
“I think probably because he was in the same clothes every single day that they used that as a weapon,” Fritchley’s mother, Debbey, told WKRN. She said Fritchley loved doing laundry though.
“He was told because he didn’t necessarily have a religion and that he said he was gay that he was going to go to hell. They told him that quite often,” Debbey added.
Though his parents knew he was experiencing bullies at school they say they didn’t know the magnitude of how Fritchley was feeling.
“It was really abusive. I don’t think it was ever physical. I think it was just words, but words hurt. They really hurt,” his father, Steve, told WKRN.
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“This has just blindsided us. This is something we would have never, ever expected.”
Debbey said he was loved more than he realized, but he was still failed.
“We all failed him. We all failed him. It’s as simple as that,” she said.