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Tennessee Teen Commits Suicide After Four Years of Anti-Gay Bullying

Posted by on Dec 8, 2011 in Bad News | 13 comments

Jacob Rogers, gone too soon.

Another teenager is dead today, having taken his own life after years of relentless anti-gay bullying.

Friends say that kids bullied Jacob Rogers at Cheatham County Central High School for the past four years, but in the past few months it had become so bad he dropped out of school.

And Wednesday, he ended his life.

“He started coming home his senior year saying ‘I don’t want to go back. Everyone is so mean. They call me a f****, they call me gay, a queer,’” friend Kaelynn Mooningham said.

Kaelynn said her friend Jacob felt ignored.

“Jacob told me no one was helping him. He constantly was going to guidance,” she said.

But Cheatham County Schools Director Dr. Tim Webb said the school was only aware of one incident of bullying.

“She actually intervened and called the students in accused of bullying or picking. She called them in, talked to them and gave them warnings. Subsequently after that, she ran into the student and asked him if things were better and he indicated that things were better,” Webb said.

Webb can claim that the torment Jacob faced wasn’t that bad until the cows come home. The fact of the matter is that Jacob’s daily gauntlet at school had become so miserable and unbearable that he stopped attending classes at all sometime around Thanksgiving this year.

Jacob left behind several notes that directed his grandmother, who he lived with, and police to an email account and phone explaining how bullying brought him to suicide.

Even sadder still, Jacob’s family cannot afford a funeral. Donations can be made on his behalf via Paypal:

Our deepest condolences go out to Jacob’s loved ones. We honestly cannot believe that we are covering another gay teen’s suicide. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. When will our schools, government, police, and neighbors step up and put an end to this national tragedy?

And for the record, it’s not lost on us that Tennessee is home to Senator Stacey Campfield’s horrific Don’t Say Gay Bill, which would have banned Jacob’s teachers and guidance counselor from even speaking to him about the subject of anti-gay bullying. The Don’t Say Gay Bill seeks to make even acknowledging the existence of homosexuality a crime in all Tennessee schools.

Senator Campfield – and hell, even Tracy Morgan – deserve blame in the death of this child. And no, we’re not even joking a little bit. Morgan made national news for standing up on a Nashville, TN stage and threatening to stab his son to death if he ever came out.

Don’t Say Gay! Gay children should die! These are the messages that Jacob spent his impressionable teen years absorbing via the media and the politicians charged with protecting the greater good in his home state.

In an environment like that, it’s hardly a surprise that Jacob Rogers killed himself. The real surprise would have been if he had somehow managed to overcome these disgusting obstacles erected in the way of his living a normal life.

There’s plenty of shame to go around this morning.