Age 10 Boy with Colostomy Bag Takes Own Life After Being Bullied, Says Mother
Life often doesn’t seem fair. Some people find themselves facing far more suffering than anyone has a right to bear.
Genetic disorders. Chronic poverty. The random cruelty of others. Such woes strike without warning.
Very special individuals learn not only how to survive such troubles, but also how to turn them into sources of strength. Sometimes, though, victims of these troubles can’t find a way to survive.
One of those victims was 10-year-old Seven Bridges, a young boy from Louisville, Kentucky. According to WDRB, Seven had been born with bowel troubles.
Physicians had attempted 26 separate surgeries to try and fix his colon. However, they didn’t prove successful.
So Seven needed to wear a colostomy bag. That’s tough medicine for adults, let alone a boy trying to find his way in the trackless social paths of school.
Seven’s mother, Tami Charles, claimed that her son faced repeated bullying. Apparently, his condition led to unpleasant smells, which made riding on the bus a torment for him.
Charles said that her son once had to face a racial slur and choking while on the bus. In fact, the assault was so severe that she took him to get a CT scan.
The irate mother urged administrators at Jefferson County Public Schools to take action against the offending student. But she said that her interventions made him even more of a target.
“Because I was so aggressive in advocating for him, they started to act differently toward him,” she said. She also told WHAS that the school district failed to act on the incident, saying, “No referral, no incident report, no paperwork.”
Seven’s father, Donnie Bridges, hoped that the situation would improve during the next school year. Seven was about to move up to middle school, starting a whole new academic life with new friends.
Around a month ago, Charles found her son crying in his bed. He said that his old friends didn’t want to be around him anymore.
Some had allegedly begun calling him a “snitch” and ostracizing him. On Jan. 20, Seven took his own life, hanging himself in a closet in his home.
Charles has blamed the school district for her son’s death, saying that it failed to address the bullying that tormented him.
“JCPS: You all failed my baby,” she told WDRB.
According to WDRB, JCPS Communications Director Renee Murphy said, “We are devastated by this. Our hearts are breaking for this family. The school community is hurting right now.”
“(Seven) couldn’t fight back,” Charles said. “He didn’t know how to hurt you. He had no malice, none.”
Liftable, a brand of The Western Journal, has reached out to the school district for comment but has not yet received a response. We will update this article if and when we do.
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