Hundreds gather for the burial of a bullied 10-year-old who committed suicide after being taunted

In heartbreaking footage from Sammy’s funeral, his parents are seen clutching his casket and weeping as mourners file by. Iron Sharpens Iron motorbike Ministry hosted Sammy’s motorbike escort, stating that they were ‘honoured’ to participate.

Before he was laid to rest, a service was held in a neighbouring auditorium, during which his loved ones recounted warm recollections of the youngster and his family and a clergyman read a farewell prayer.

Andrew McIntosh, a neighbour, offered the youngster’s eulogy, recalling how Sammy quickly befriended his son Judah after arriving to the neighbourhood. “Right there in my hallway was a handsome little boy that I swear could have been pulled right out of an Andy Griffith episode or a Norman Rockwell painting,” he added. According to the Greenfield reporter.

“I knew immediately that my son had made a good friend,” he claimed, adding that the 10-year-old appeared popular among the local youngsters and was frequently seen with ‘the largest grin on his face.’ ‘He just stared up at me sweating, those spectacles rising up on his cheeks over a smile that was much too wide for his little face,’ McIntosh explained.

‘But when he did grin, and I mean truly smile, he appeared to pull the darkness from every corner of the room.’ A candlelight vigil is also planned for Greenfield on Friday, as the little community mourns Sammy’s untimely suicide.

His parents, Sam and Nichole, stated he was subjected to both physical and mental bullying at school, and he was harassed every day until the night he died.

They claimed the bullying began last year when he was in elementary school and followed him to Greenfield Intermediate School.

The abuse led to a recent incident on a school bus in which he was battered, and Sammy’s parents said they informed instructors and school personnel about the bullying 20 times but received no response.

His father, Sam, told WTHR that they started making fun of him for his spectacles and then moved on to making fun of his teeth. It continued for a long time. I held him in my arms.

I did something no father should ever have to do, and when I close my eyes, that’s all I see. The abuse became physical, according to Sam, who added, “He was beat up on the school bus, and the kids broke his glasses and everything.” I called the school and said, ‘What are you doing about this? It’s becoming worse and worse. And it isn’t getting any better. In fact, it is becoming worse.

His grandma Cynthia told 21alive: ‘They can’t just state they have zero tolerance because that doesn’t mean there is zero tolerance for bullies. ‘Their zero tolerance implies that they are not responsible for it.

People entrust their children to the school, but that trust is eroding. Although the family claims to have protested to the school dozens of times about the bullying, Greenfield Community Schools administrator Dr. Harold Olin told WTHR that neither the parents nor Sammy submitted a bullying report.

He also stated that school administrators and counsellors had been in regular communication with the family, but failed to provide specifics about these discussions.

Sam stated, “[The school] knew this was going on,” with the bullying spreading from the school and bus to social media platforms such as Snapchat. His mother, Nichole, said, ‘He was my little boy. He was my baby. He was the youngest one.

Greenfield-Central Community School issued a statement saying, “The death of Samuel Teusch is tragic, and it has left our school corporation and the larger community in tremendous grief.” Our hearts go out to the family at this time. Sammy has been a student at Greenfield-Central for the past year and a half.

He completed his third grade year at Weston Elementary School in May 2023, and he is currently a fourth grade student at Greenfield Intermediate School for the 2023-24 school year.

We were informed of his passing on Sunday afternoon, and we sent our crisis response team to Greenfield Intermediate School and Greenfield Central Junior High School (where he had two siblings) to begin the week. ‘Over the last 18 months, our Greenfield-Central staff has worked extensively with the Teusch family.

Contact between school workers and parents was regular. ‘The parents reported the death as a suicide, and we are looking into their claims of bullying.
‘While the inquiry is ongoing, we are primarily focused our efforts on serving the immediate needs of the pupils in Greenfield-Central Schools.’