Bullies to Face 5 Day Suspension for Tormenting Jamey Rodemeyer to Death

Posted by Kevin Farrell on Dec 6, 2011 in Bad News | 25 comments

14-year-old Jamey Rodemeyer deserves better.

UB readers have followed along in horror as the tragic story of Jamey Rodemeyer unfolded over the past several months. You know, the one where a gay student was mercilessly bullied for years without aid from his school to the point where he took his own life, practically live-blogging the entire choose your own (terrible) adventure along the way.

After his death, Jamey’s bullies literally cheered and chanted “We’re glad you’re dead” at the homecoming dance. Then came word that police would be charging the students in question with hate crimes for their part in the death of their classmate. Except that didn’t end up happening.

Amherst police chief John Askey eventually announced that no criminal charges would be brought against the group of students. Why? Because their star witness, was no longer alive to testify against them. The bullies practically got away with murder, all because they did their job so well.

“[The police] shared some information with us, and we followed up,” Superintendent Scott Martzloff said. “We made the determination to take disciplinary action.”

He declined to say how many students were suspended. Though based on Amherst police findings, it’s likely that several of Jamey’s classmates were sanctioned.

Regarding the severity of punishments these students received, Martzloff said only that the students face “a minimum of suspensions.” That implies at least short-term suspensions of up to five days, with the possibility of long-term suspensions subject to a hearing. Expulsion is not an option for students of this age.

Does a five day suspension sound like an appropriate punishment for students who assaulted the gay 14-year-old in the halls and literally encouraged him to kill himself?

The district based its disciplinary actions on the Amherst Police Department’s incident findings, previously reported by The Buffalo News. Among them:

A witness said one female classmate who had known Jamey since middle school told Jamey something along the lines of, “Faggot, why don’t you just kill yourself?” This student’s family hired a lawyer shortly after she began being questioned by police.
In a separate incident, the same student later told Jamey something like, “You’re a faggot.”
Another identified student pushed Jamey as he passed him in the hallway and called him a fag.
Yet another identified student made “an inappropriate comment” to Jamey regarding his sexual orientation, Askey said.

Words fail to describe how disappointed we have been in this story’s evolution, from start to finish. Our condolences go out to Jamey’s loved ones, who continue to have their hearts trampled all over.

Do you think a five suspension is an adequate punishment for tormenting a classmate to death, and then chanting “We’re glad you’re dead” at his memorial?

k. samir

Five? I would’ve gotten two weeks minimum for throwing food in the cafeteria.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=592796245 Trenton Flock

Bully someone to death, get a week off from school. That’ll show ‘em.

I gave up on expecting justice in this world long, long ago, but this still hurts. I hope these kids aren’t haunted by this for the rest of their wretched, hateful lives.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jessi-Townley/646647822 Jessi Townley

This is completely sick. I have boys this age and I am a
Lesbian. I would absolutely destroy these children and their parents if this
was my son. Not to mention what I would do if my sons were bullying someone
like this. This breaks my heart on so many levels.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Emory-Poe-Blocker/100002138388711 Emory Poe Blocker

so now thay can do it again to someone else….and its OKAY.? when and where does it stop. this is absolute BS
http://www.facebook.com/tommy.gonzales1 Tommy Gonzales

I hate people like those bullies shame on them and God will punish them for their actions!
Ethan Slyder

Bullied to DEATH must not mean anything to anyone! My school suspends people for 2 weeks for bullying and I am sure with a small fight would suspend some one for a month if the result was death. I think being expelled is needed so no one at that school can go through something like this again.

Ethan Slyder
Co-editor
The Peruvian

http://www.facebook.com/todd.klopfer Todd Klopfer

What part of the country is your school located? I bet the punishments are significantly different depending on the location. It has been a long time since I was in school but I don’t recall severe punishments.

http://www.kateescapenj.blogspot.com Katie Andrews

aw and so close to christmas too
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=23507999 Brittany Ashcraft

This is absolutely evil, its horrible that some people have no compassion, no guilt, no since of human decency. Yeah school 5 days of no school is really going to show them. Thanks for giving them a vacation and aiding in there soulless acts. Jail time to the max would be more appropriate for being accessories to murder. People like this should be taken off the streets so that they don’t continue to torment others for being different. They have no guilty conscience so they will never really feel bad for their behavior. This is a VERY scary thought!
http://twitter.com/markzero mark zero (Jason)

A 5 day suspension would have been appropriate… when they first started the bullying. I want to know why none of the teachers or other adults who surely witnessed these events are being held accountable for not stepping in before this reached the level of tragedy. Surely their betrayal helped push him over the edge as much as it provided encouragement to the bullies that they could get away with their behavior.
Anonymous

this makes me SO SICK!! Where WERE the adults? Were ARE the adults? The teachers, principles, staff? The parents? The superintendent the Mayor of Amherst? The local political representatives. If they fails to see their taxes are supporting raising moron bigoted hoodlums, they are failing at their job! Where are the prosecutors to protect the family since the boy killed himself? This is disgusting and should NOT be done with!! There should be a petition created to support a case against the kids, the school, the Principle, the Superintendent and the parents of the children who did this. I can’t imagine what the family is suffering for their loss.
This is a travesty rampant in our country and the way it’s dealt with needs to STOP NOW! here. In the name of Jamey Rodemeyer!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Julianna-Maguire/1373752420 Julianna Maguire

This entire affair makes me want to vomit. A child is dead! How is nobody doing anything? In most states students can be sent to juvenile detention for ditching too much school. Why are none of these kids getting taken to court? I hope each and everyone of them at least gets their rear ends handed to them in a civil suit. It wouldn’t be justice, but at least it would be on the books so they’d have to deal with it for the rest of their lives.
This most horrifying part to me is what happened at the dance. If a student dies, and his classmates start celebrating that fact, it seems like that should score those kids a psychiatric evaluation. There is something deeply wrong with those students.
http://twitter.com/BlueScorpioMoon Jennifer

Oh, wow, well at least they’re young and they’ll hopefully recover from this traumatic suspension before it ruins their lives…

I don’t actually know what would be appropriate in this case. Certainly more than this, and in my opinion what they did was criminal and should be punishable as such. But are there any laws that address bullying someone to death? This is something that needs to be looked at closely, because this problem is sadly not going away, and it won’t so long as there are no repurcussions.

Hate is a learned behavior. I hope the parents of these kids at least recognize their own responsibility for Jamey’s death.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1267110145 Tess Bastian

Just too sad. What has the world come to? Well, it’s been like this forever, so it’s more like what the world hasn’t come to. We don’t have to LIKE everyone, but tolerance is a must!
http://twitter.com/bennyalick Benny Alick

I am a 31 year old guy from Australia and I have seen bullying at it’s worst. But this takes the cake. There was never anything done about bullying at my high school when I was there (1992-1996). I thought something might have changed. Seems not. Same everywhere in the world.

I think the Chanting part was the part that upset me the most. Chanting at a funeral for something you must know you were responsible for. Letting them get away with this is wrong and perhaps in private they are grieving. Just in public they have to keep up appearances with others. Still, someone in that group needed to make a stand.

I remember one kid in my school who was bullied almost non-stop. In a cooking class once, I saw him holding a knife and almost crying. I didn’t know what he was thinking or what I should have said, but it felt horrible. I took a few hits for that kid and my rep went down of course, but I will never forget the sense of right and wrong I felt at that time. Teachers saw and did not even stop the fights at times.

With so much peer pressure, it’s hard to see anything changing. With schools so worried about their reputation, it’s hard to see things changing. With Teachers not giving a shit, it’s hard to see things changing. We all hope to see a glimmer of hope somewhere, but again, it’s hard to see anything changing.

I heard someone mention last week about a “Bully Squad” that would go around and bully bullies. Seemed like a stupid idea, but would it work? I doubt it … Any suggestions to what would work? Please leave out things like petition schools or education offices, get lawyers involved or things that have been tried and clearly have been found wanting …
http://www.facebook.com/bkmorton Ben Morton

Please… someone who lives in the area… Do some investigation to find out the names of these kids..

The very least we can do for Jamey is to publish the bullies’ names to make sure the whole world knows. They are not entitled to live in peace; and all future employers when they leave school need to realise they are guilty of murder.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Stash-Bayley/1490161181 Stash Bayley

Unbelievable!
Julien Guévremont

oh how i would like to give a lesson to those kids….
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000292218403 Amulya Bhattarai

wtf, is wrong with schools?? expulsion should be the only penalty even thought of, these kids led to an innocent kids death and they get 5 days off? those kids are probably cheering about an early winter break…
http://www.facebook.com/legendarysim Justin Merrill

First Casey Anthony and then these bullies. It seems like anyone these days can get away with blatant murder. These people deserve to be punished even further. If the country and the state don’t make sure justice is served – god help me I will support anything than will properly serve justice.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Kelsey-Dawn-Stringer/536564866 Kelsey Dawn Stringer

My best friend growing up is gay and it saddens me to read about this I know that if I was there at his school I would have stuck up for him condolences to his family . These kids are not the only ones to blame the school should go down too for doing nothing you cant say that the teachers did not see him bullied
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=194002341 Darek M

Every student I know that had a punishment of suspension LOVED it. This form of “punishment really needs to be reviewed it does nothing, its just another name for vacation. A lot of the students I know even got to take home the homework they would miss early so they could do it well they were at home.
roy lang

it’s outrageous how bullying is accepted in society if you need to lower someone’s self-esteem to make yourself feel better is something wrong with, it’s time for you to grow up and realize that you’re not a man if you lower someone’s self-esteem. Unfortunately we don’t know who to be upset with the kids that brought him to the edge to commit suicide, or to the parents that did not stop it or the professors staff government officials family members and neighbors society the whole world watch and no one stopped…
this boy helped so alone that no one care and he ended his life, the whole world lost this kid, so sad and frustrating that no one did nothing to stop it. This is not about being gay is about being human about caring for that kid not because he’s gay because he’s a kid.
Think people change people live people if not it will continue for a long time.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1099523939 Dannie ForeverYoung Hall

Hell no! those kids should be thrown in jail…they were/are responsible for there actions and Jamey’s death!!! 5 days suspension wont do anything.
Rev Fr R.D. White II

Suspension is not a penalty for children… they WANT to stay at home! DUH!

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