Teen Commits Suicide Due to Bullying: Parents Sue School for Son's Death

[Miss Mia]

Teen Commits Suicide Due to Bullying: Parents Sue School for Son's Death

Eric Mohat, 17, was harassed so mercilessly in high school that when one bully said publicly in class, "Why don't you go home and shoot yourself, no one will miss you," he did.

Now his parents, William and Janis Mohat of Mentor, Ohio, have filed a lawsuit in federal court, saying that their son endured name-calling, teasing, constant pushing and shoving and hitting in front of school officials who should have protected him.

The lawsuit -- filed March 27, alleges that the quiet but likable boy, who was involved in theater and music, was called "gay," "fag," "queer" and "homo" and often in front of his teachers. Most of the harassment took place in math class and the teacher -- an athletic coach -- was accused of failing to protect the boy.

"When you lose a child like this it destroys you in ways you can't even describe," Eric Mohat's father told ABCNews.com.

The parents aren't seeking any compensation; rather, they are asking that Mentor High School recognize their son's death as a "bullicide" and put in place what they believe is a badly needed anti-bullying program.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, names school administrators Jacqueline A. Hoynes and Joseph Spiccia, as well as math teacher Thomas M. Horvath. None would comment on the allegations.

Parents Say Three Other Students Killed Themselves

The Mohats also claim that bullying was a "significant factor" in the deaths of three other students in Eric Mohat's class in 2007.

Mentor high school officials confirmed that a girl and two other boys in Eric's class had killed themselves in 2007.

-snip-

[thundley4]

The parents aren't seeking any compensation; rather, they are asking that Mentor High School recognize their son's death as a "bullicide" and put in place what they believe is a badly needed anti-bullying program.

Kudos to the parents for this.  It seems like most of the blame for the bullying may lie with the math teacher/athletic coach.  Still it bothers me to think that kids are so weak willed that they take this way out.  6' 1" and 112 pounds almost sounds like he may have had a medical problem also.

[jtyangel]

Given the pattern in the particular classroom, it would seem to warrant a what see...everyone probably gets made fun of at some point, but was it ongoing to where it was totally disruptive and did it become physical as in degrading. I know some here may not like this opinion, but if belittling like this is not allowed in the workplace, then why should it be allowed to this extent in school? If someone was to pester someone like this in a work environment they'd be reprimanded or fired, why would we allow that type of child to stay in school? At the same time, kids need to be equipped with a little tougher stuff, especially if they are going to single themselves out as different in some way with how they dress, how they keep their hair, etc. It's ok to be different, but you have to have the balls to pull it off in the first place. If not, get back in line with the rest of the herd Sorry to make light, just seems there are two serious issues here on bothsides only knowing cursory parts of the story.

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

This is what happens when you have a zero-tolerance policy toward fighting and such! Back when I went to school a good ass kicking to the bullies would stop alot of this shit! They leave kids defenseless against this kind of crap when there can be no consequences for bullying but the kid who defends himself gets expelled!

[Miss Mia]

Kudos to the parents for this.  It seems like most of the blame for the bullying may lie with the math teacher/athletic coach.  Still it bothers me to think that kids are so weak willed that they take this way out.  6' 1" and 112 pounds almost sounds like he may have had a medical problem also.

He tried to get help from the school.  When no one's there to help you, and it seems like the "adults" condone this action, what do you expect?  I find it sad that the teachers/administrators didn't stop this.  It's not "weak willed" when you get beaten down (physically or verbally) day after day after day, it's hard to rise above it, and even if you do shove it down can easily pop back up in your head years later.  

[Lord Undies]

Thank the Lord this sort of thing is so rare it still makes News.  

[thundley4]

He tried to get help from the school.  When no one's there to help you, and it seems like the "adults" condone this action, what do you expect?  I find it sad that the teachers/administrators didn't stop this.  It's not "weak willed" when you get beaten down (physically or verbally) day after day after day, it's hard to rise above it, and even if you do shove it down can easily pop back up in your head years later.  

I dunno. I put up with lots of bullying and teasing about weight, when in school.  I't made me study harder to be better than the bullies in at least one thing.  Most bullying is verbal, and if can learn how to fight back in that way, then you can make it through it. I even got to be friends with some of the so called bullies, but I never let myself do the things they had done to me.

[jtyangel]

He tried to get help from the school.  When no one's there to help you, and it seems like the "adults" condone this action, what do you expect?  I find it sad that the teachers/administrators didn't stop this.  It's not "weak willed" when you get beaten down (physically or verbally) day after day after day, it's hard to rise above it, and even if you do shove it down can easily pop back up in your head years later.  

yeah,I agree...it does constitute abuse and it can take years to overcome it. A lot of people make it out past the part where they are trapped in that situation and do get past it at some point, but a handful don't for whatever reason. Again, consistent emotional, physical abuse and intimidation would not be tolerated in a work environment. I see school as a sort of work environment for children. Expectations of behavior should be similar as should consequences for inappropriate behavior. Of course, TTTL has a point, when the weak kid could kick ass back, a lot of this thing didn't come day in and day out consistent behavior because the contientious kid had to worry about a serious blemish on his record if he fights back and is treated with 'zero tolerance'.

[DumbAss Tanker]

This is what happens when you have a zero-tolerance policy toward fighting and such! Back when I went to school a good ass kicking to the bullies would stop alot of this shit! They leave kids defenseless against this kind of crap when there can be no consequences for bullying but the kid who defends himself gets expelled!

Apparently their zero-tolerance policy didn't apply to the bullies, if they had one.

[Toastedturningtidelegs]

Apparently their zero-tolerance policy didn't apply to the bullies, if they had one.

Most zero tolerance policies only cover physicality i'm afraid!

[DumbAss Tanker]

Most zero tolerance policies only cover physicality i'm afraid!

Sounds like it was pretty physical by the standards most schools use, if he was getting "constant pushing and shoving and hitting" in addition to the verbal abuse.  Personally I think the math teacher needs to be stuffed in a bag full of starving cats and beat with a large stick until the screaming, moving, and breathing stops, but that's just my own humble opinion.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

Didn't the dumbass school enforce discipline, respect and behavior standards.

I bet overall academic performance at the school is in the shitter and the kids are handed diplomas they can't read.

[Lanie]

Given the pattern in the particular classroom, it would seem to warrant a what see...everyone probably gets made fun of at some point, but was it ongoing to where it was totally disruptive and did it become physical as in degrading. I know some here may not like this opinion, but if belittling like this is not allowed in the workplace, then why should it be allowed to this extent in school? If someone was to pester someone like this in a work environment they'd be reprimanded or fired, why would we allow that type of child to stay in school? At the same time, kids need to be equipped with a little tougher stuff, especially if they are going to single themselves out as different in some way with how they dress, how they keep their hair, etc. It's ok to be different, but you have to have the balls to pull it off in the first place. If not, get back in line with the rest of the herd Sorry to make light, just seems there are two serious issues here on bothsides only knowing cursory parts of the story.

I agree. If one got haressed like this at work, they would be fired. If one was beaten up on for being different, they could press charges against the other person and have them sent to jail. Adults are expected to put up with so much less than kids do, and that's not right.

As for how they dress, keep their hair, and so forth, I've never seen haressment for that reason except when a kid didn't wear the clothing of the middle class. If a kid wears Chic shoes instead of Nikes, they can be haressed. How can kids be more equipped for handling that? Some people think the answer to this is school uniforms, but I don't agree. Kids need to be taught at an early age to accept people who are different from them. Accept, in this case only means not haressing them. It doesn't mean being their friend.

[Lord Undies]

I agree. If one got haressed like this at work, they would be fired. If one was beaten up on for being different, they could press charges against the other person and have them sent to jail. Adults are expected to put up with so much less than kids do, and that's not right.

As for how they dress, keep their hair, and so forth, I've never seen haressment for that reason except when a kid didn't wear the clothing of the middle class. If a kid wears Chic shoes instead of Nikes, they can be haressed. How can kids be more equipped for handling that? Some people think the answer to this is school uniforms, but I don't agree. Kids need to be taught at an early age to accept people who are different from them. Accept, in this case only means not haressing them. It doesn't mean being their friend.

If you ever figure out how to teach an immature mind to go against basic human nature, you be sure and write a book.

[Hawkgirl]

How awful...I so hope that when the time comes, I am able to see signs of bullying in my kid...whether she is the recipient of bullying tactics or vice versa. 

[rich_t]

Didn't the dumbass school enforce discipline, respect and behavior standards.

I bet overall academic performance at the school is in the shitter and the kids are handed diplomas they can't read.

I grew up not far from Mentor and had several friends that went to that school.  It used to have pretty decent academic performance.  But that was over 20 years ago.  Not sure about these days.

[Lanie]

If you ever figure out how to teach an immature mind to go against basic human nature, you be sure and write a book.

Well, I actually have seen it. I've worked with kids who have disabilities in which their human nature is not to be social at all (because they have Autism or something). Sometimes, these kids can't stand a change in the schedule much less a new person. Overtime, they've been taught to adjust. I think two main ideas are to have them in the same classroom together (no segregation, except for academic reasons, and then we should try not completely segregate) and to teach students to replace a bad behavior with an alternative behavior. Actually, with enough intervention, a lot of these kids with disabilities (who supposedly can't function in regular society) end up a lot better behaved than kids in General Education. I guess my point is that if these kids can be taught to adjust to what makes them afraid or agitated, then so can other kids.

[Carl]

Most of school life I was made fun of for about any reason one can imagine...being poor,funny looking,scrawny,clutzy...the list goes on and on and like everyone else hated it.
I survived though and so does pretty much everyone else.

If it is true that 3 or 4 students in this one teachers class have committed suicide then that should get a serious investigation as to what goes on.

This is a rural area with a farily small population so anything like this is a once in a few years happening so to be fair it would be a big story here.

Even though we probably would disagree on almost any politcal subject there is a H5 to Lanie for doing that sort of work.
I never would have the patience to do it.

[Lanie]

Most of school life I was made fun of for about any reason one can imagine...being poor,funny looking,scrawny,clutzy...the list goes on and on and like everyone else hated it.
I survived though and so does pretty much everyone else.

If it is true that 3 or 4 students in this one teachers class have committed suicide then that should get a serious investigation as to what goes on.

This is a rural area with a farily small population so anything like this is a once in a few years happening so to be fair it would be a big story here.

Even though we probably would disagree on almost any politcal subject there is a H5 to Lanie for doing that sort of work.
I never would have the patience to do it.

Thanks.

I just read the entire story. I didn't realize three other kids killed themselves.  I agree there should be an investigation. When I was growing up, suicide was rare. Very rare. Of course, there was more room for defending oneself.

[Carl]

Thanks.

I just read the entire story. I didn't realize three other kids killed themselves.  I agree there should be an investigation. When I was growing up, suicide was rare. Very rare. Of course, there was more room for defending oneself.

In my school fights were not allowed and there was a penalty for one...the over riding issue was that if you efffed up at school there was a greater price to pay at home.
That is why I "took it" rather then fight back.
I wouldn`t today but it doesn`t matter now and still understand what the saying discretion is the better part of valor means.

I am not going to turn this into a political thing as I really feel there is a lot of plain old evil at work here but the trepidation of those in authority regarding discipline is a child of the 60s lib think.
That the teacher may be an oppressive,insulting,hateful person ( evidence at the moment would suggest that) isn`t excusable or something I would want to affiliate with either.

[Lord Undies]

.
That the teacher may be an oppressive,insulting,hateful person ( evidence at the moment would suggest that) isn`t excusable or something I would want to affiliate with either.

That describes all ('cept maybe four) of the teachers I had. 

[Lanie]

In my school fights were not allowed and there was a penalty for one...the over riding issue was that if you efffed up at school there was a greater price to pay at home.
That is why I "took it" rather then fight back.
I wouldn`t today but it doesn`t matter now and still understand what the saying discretion is the better part of valor means.

I am not going to turn this into a political thing as I really feel there is a lot of plain old evil at work here but the trepidation of those in authority regarding discipline is a child of the 60s lib think.
That the teacher may be an oppressive,insulting,hateful person ( evidence at the moment would suggest that) isn`t excusable or something I would want to affiliate with either.

Well, I tried fighting a few times. It never worked out. I normally had to talk it out with the person or work something out. We had a penalty too, but ISS was the least of my problems when one was bullying me. I actually saw ISS as a safezone the two times I went. I normally didn't want to go back to class the next day because of the situation. My parents *normally* wanted me to "take up for myself". Fighting didn't work well with me, but it supposedly worked well for some others.

The difference I see between then and today is that today some schools are actually wanting to get the law involved. The law is not worth dealing with. The only thing I really have to say about discipline is that the parents and the teachers should be working together, but they often don't. Some parents don't want to be told their kid did something bad at school. OTOH, I sort of have problems with the idea of returning back to certain forms of discipline in school because some teachers really don't know where the line is drawn. They don't know which kids it would work best on (going back to the issue of really needing to work with the parent), and some teachers were just flat out brutal. My sister's second grade teacher had a paddle the size of a chopping board and could seriously hurt students at times. OTOH, some teachers used the paddle and weren't that bad at all. If most teachers could handle it without crossing the line (like 99.9% of them), I might not have a problem with bringing CP back. On another note, I'm sort of wondering if the teachers who wanted to use the paddle for everything aren't the same teachers that now want to get the parents to agree to use Ridalin. That's just a theory though. No real proof behind it.