A 10-year-old boy took his precious young life after he was bullied by other students who beat him up and told him ‘You don’t belong here.
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Crystal Smith said her beloved son Kevin Reese Jr. had been a cheerful boy who loved to paint and draw. But at school, the child was being tormented.
Speaking about her heartbreak, she told KTRK: “I never thought he would go this far, never. I’m still in disbelief. It’s taking me awhile to actually accept the fact that this happened.”
Smith thought Kevin was ‘handling’ the situation but she had no idea how bad things had become. Boys in his class wrote ‘Kill yourself, you don’t belong here’ on his tablet and they even beat Kevin up.
“When it got physical back in November, he came home crying because he didn’t fight back,” she expressed. “And one of the boys punched him several times coming from recess.”
But two months later, her son told her he ‘just had enough.’ “He felt that he was backed into a corner,” Smith said.
It was Kevin’s sister who discovered his body.
Smith added: “She was just screaming on the phone and I didn’t understand and she screamed ‘Kevin.’
“He hung himself in his closet. I told her to hang up with me and cut him down, and while you’re cutting him down call 911.
“Everything was not real. I was in a place where I just couldn’t move.”
The child’s school district claimed no evidence or allegations of bullying had been reported to the school. However, Smith reached out to a school official after Kevin was punched by a schoolmate, but the official left a voicemail saying they had looked into the incident.
“They told me they never found any bullying going on,” Smith expressed.
The official who sent her the voicemail is no longer at Robinson Elementary. She has since been re-assigned to another position.
“I just want to find the answer, what happened that day, what was going through his mind?” Smith said.
She added: “Pay attention to your child, don’t assume that things are handled at the school. Stay on top of it until you see something come out on the end.”
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