Fifteen-year-old Greensburg ( Ind. ) High School student Billy Lucas recently committed suicideand friends are saying that bullying may have pushed him to the breaking point, according to WTHR.com .
Lucas was starting to settle into the school. However, his memorial Facebook page points to repeated bullying as the reason he took his own life. Nick Hughes said, "He was threatened to get beat up every day. Sometimes in classes, kids would act like they were going to punch him and stuff and push him."
A press release from the Trevor Projecta national organization focused on crisis intervention and suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ youthpoints toward Lucas' sexual orientation ( whether real or perceived ) as the reason for the bullying. Executive Director Charles Robbins said, "Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old at Greensburg High School stood out among the 630 students in the school because he was different. Other students perceived that Billy was gay and he was relentlessly tormented as a result.
"The death of Billy Lucas is a tragedy, and one that might have been prevented if his school district had the support of a fully inclusive anti-harassment and anti-bullying law."