Bullying and Suicide - An Expert's Take

A Murray County family continues to search for answers after they say their disabled son killed himself because of brutal bullying.

On Tuesday NewsChannel 9 spoke with a counselor who says that bullying needs to be taken seriously by every parent, but he says that placing blame after a suicide can be unproductive.

"Poor social skills is the primary thing that children have that have Aspergers," Wayne Williams says.

Williams is a licensed professional counselor who deals with suicide issues everyday. He also knows a lot about Aspergers Syndrome because his son was diagnosed at an early age.

"An Aspergers child takes everything seriously and if somebody is kidding with them they don't perceive that they're being kidded with, they think it's very serious," Williams says.

On Monday night we told you about Tyler Long - a seventeen year old diagnosed with Aspergers Syndrome. His parents tell us he was bullied so badly that he decided to kill himself instead of going back to school.

"He just wanted to be took for who he was, he didn't want to be teased, he didn't want to be treated different, he would always say why won't they like me for who I am?," Tina Long tells NewsChannel 9 reporter Will Carr.

But Williams tells us that every school is supposed to have specific bullying procedures. Procedures that Long's parents say Murray County High School did not enforce even after they formally complained.

"I would call the school and I would tell them that somebody spit in Tyler's food at lunch and they would say without a name we can't help you. Sometimes he didn't know there name, most times he didn't," Long says.

Tyler killed himself on October 17th. But now that he's gone, Williams says the best thing his family can do is look towards the future and not harp on the past.

"Typically a kid commits suicide they don't tell anybody they're going to do they just do. Then they look at all these warning signs like we should have seen these warning signs. I think that's a terrible pressure to put on any parent, any family member, any school, and person," Williams says.

Williams tells us it can be hard to prevent someone from committing suicide. But he says you can look for the following warning signs: depression, crying, anti-social behavior, constant fatigue, and weight changes.

We asked the Murray County School System for a comment on Tuesday and they told us they extend their sympathies to the Long family but cannot legally comment on student information.