Lincoln
Park Middle School, she kissed her reflection goodbye. The lipstick smudges
still adorn Tempest's mirror, sad reminders of the day the tall, troubled
girl slipped a leopard-print scarf around her neck and hanged herself from
her bunk bed.
Title: TEASING
AND TAUNTING LED GIRL TO END HER LIFE
Author: John
T. Greilick
Source: The Detroit
News
Article# 2815
Twelve-year-old
Tempest Smith sat alone in her bedroom one chilly morning late last month
and gazed into the mirror. Shortly before her classes were to start at Lincoln
Park Middle School, she kissed her reflection goodbye. The lipstick smudges
still adorn Tempest's mirror, sad reminders of the day the tall, troubled
girl slipped a leopard-print scarf around her neck and hanged herself from
her bunk bed.
Tempest's journal, discovered under her bed after her Feb. 20 suicide, offers a glimpse into a problem family and friends didn't fully understand: the incessant teasing she faced every day about her shy demeanor, choice of clothing and religious beliefs that made each day of school -- then eventually life itself -- unbearable.
Many of her classmates had teased her constantly since elementary school. They teased her because she wore dark "Gothic" clothing to school. They teased her because she read books about Wicca, a pagan religion often associated with witchcraft. Her classmates often taunted her with Christian hymns.
Now people aren't chanting Jesus luvs u. They're singing it.
"May those teasing children be horrificly reminded each day of what they have done in malice. May the Gods have mercy on those xtian souls who drove our little sister to this tragic end. And may the Gods watch over beloved Tempest
...for all time." ~ Nikolai ~ GothWitches, Inc.
