It saddens me no end whenever this sort of thing happens. I shudder to think it could have been one of mine.

My twin daughters (now 17) went through a real bad patch when they were 14/15 with school, bullies, peer pressure etc etc. They were into Goth/Marilyn Manson type stuff. I shook my head in disbelief when the school representative suggested they hide their gothic tendandcies to avoid the bullying! What if they had been bullied because they were black/jewish/disabled or anything else? Would he have suggested bleach? Christian conversion? A miracle cure?

Until the school authorities understand that NO amount of bullying for ANY reason is tolerable these tragedies will happen again and again. Fortunately both Mrs G and I and all of mini-G's friends were very supportive and they pulled through OK. (Well - as OK as possible with a folk singing Gnome for a dad...)

But there but for grace of god etc. I wish I could help.

Cheers

Dave the Gnome