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'Happy kid' kills himself over bullying at two NYC
schools
by NBCNewYork.com
June 1, 2012
NEW YORK
CITY -- A 12-year-old boy
harassed by school bullies about his intelligence, his height and his deceased
father killed himself in the New York
City apartment he shared with his mother, according to
relatives and those who knew him, NBCNewYork.com
reported.
"I want to remember
him as a happy kid," his anguished sister told NBC 4 New York on Thursday.
Joel Morales, of East Harlem, moved to a different school after enduring
incessant taunting for months, but the bullying persisted, the fifth-grader’s
family said.
Kids chased Morales, threw
sticks and pipes at him and teased him for his smarts and his 4-foot-9 stature,
his family said.
Morales’ anguish reached a
breaking point when bullies taunted him about his father, who died when he was
four years old, according to relatives.
His mother, Lisbeth
Babilonia, found him hanging in their apartment at about 11:30 p.m. Tuesday,
hours after she had organized a search party when he didn’t return home on time
from an after-school club.
An occupational therapist who
worked with Morales at one of the schools because of his diminutive size told
NBC 4 New York the boy only reluctantly talked about his problems.
"It was very difficult,
especially with a child like Joel who wants so badly to please everyone, to see
that he was really in pain, that he was struggling," said Maria Ubiles.
Arlene Gago, a youth minister
from a church group, said she spoke with Morales regularly at the
Jefferson Houses where he lived but never knew of his distress.
"I always asked him,
'How you doing? How's school?'" she said. "We talked but he'd
never tell me what was going on."
A classmate told Morales’ family that the boy had said he
was tired of the bullying and told them the details of the remark about his
father that sent him over the edge.
School officials declined to
comment on the alleged bullying, citing privacy issues.
Police said Morales left no
suicide note.
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