The father of a 10-year-old boy who died by suicide after being bullied by classmates reports that he and his wife are now being harassed by complete strangers who claim they failed as parents.
Sam Teusch, whose son Sammy took his own life on May 5, told The Daily Beast that he's still trying to process what happened.
While the local community has been supportive and kind following the death of the fourth grader, Teusch and his wife have been subjected to negative reception from random individuals, they told the Beast.
"I'm getting messages from people — we have no idea who they are — saying: 'This is your fault; you did this,'" Teusch said.
"Or, 'You didn't do enough to protect him.' It's horrible. It's just like at Sammy's school, where you've got 400 good kids and you've got six bad kids. In this case, you're dealing with hundreds of millions of people, and so you've got a couple of million bullies. It's just pure hate," he continued.
Despite his extreme anger over what happened to his son, he insisted that he does not want "negativity" over it and instead hopes to teach other children that "things can be accomplished by being kind."
Sammy was relentlessly bullied at Greenfield Intermediate School in Greenfield, Indiana, over his teeth and glasses, according to Teusch.
He was regularly beaten up on the school bus, and was cornered in a school bathroom last week.
Instead of being protected, Sammy was kicked off the bus "more than once."
Teusch emphasized that this is not just an Indiana problem.
"I think that it's a nationwide problem ... This isn't a left or right problem; this is not black or white;. It's not religion; it's none of that. This is an issue that concerns every single parent," he said.
Other kids comforted the father, letting him know that his son "uplifted them all the time" and that the way he would slam-dunk his trash into the garbage can "like Kobe would brighten their day."
Sammy, in fact, "had more friends than he even realized," said Teusch.
In response to the tragedy, the Greenfield-Central Community School Corporation released a statement,
"Our staff in Greenfield-Central has worked with the Teusch family quite a bit over the last 18 months. Contact between school personnel and the parents was frequent. The parents did report the manner of death as suicide, and we are investigating their claims related to bullying," it read.
If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide or struggling with suicidal thoughts, help is available 24 hours a day through the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. You are not alone.
