A nine-year-old boy in the United States killed himself after suffering homophobic abuse at school, his mother has said.
Leia Pierce claims her son Jamel Myles was bullied at Joe Shoemaker Elementary School in Denver, Colorado, after telling her over the summer that he was gay.
Ms Pierce said Jamel was “proud” about his s3xuality but endured four days of bullying at the start of the new school year, Skynews said.
She told local news station KDVR-TV: “Four days is all it took at school. I could just imagine what they said to him.
“My son told my oldest daughter the kids at school told him to kill himself. I’m just sad he didn’t come to me.”
Ms Pierce told the Denver Post newspaper that her son had started wearing fake fingernails on 20 August, his first day at school.
She said she found his body at their home on Thursday 23 August and tried in vain to revive him.
She has called for parents of children that bully to be held accountable.
Ms Pierce told KDVR-TV: “I think the parent should be held (accountable) because obviously the parents are either teaching them to be like that, or they’re treating them like that.”
The local coroner’s office has confirmed Jamel died from suicide, according to local media.
A letter from principal Christine Fleming to the families of pupils at the school expressed “extreme sadness” about Jamel’s death, saying it was “an unexpected loss for our school community”.
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