The devastated families who lost kids to suicide in 2024: America’s dire year for school bullying

The ornaments hanging on the Christmas tree were carefully made by Sammy Teusch’s young hands.

But Sammy won’t be celebrating with his family on December 25.

The 10-year-old tragically killed himself in May after months of bullying by schoolmates — the latest victim of a youth crisis that experts say is only getting worse.

Across America this holiday season, some two dozen families will be holding back the tears, gazing at an empty chair around the table.

Others will be trying to raise the spirits of a youngster who attempted to end their life after taunting at school.

Such tragedies have devastated households from California to Idaho, Colorado, Indiana, Nevada, and Pennsylvania this year.

The actual number of ‘bullycide’ deaths, as they are known, will not be clear for many months, but early indications are that 2024 was a bad year.  

Sammy’s grieving dad, Sam Teusch, of Greenfield, Indiana, says he’s putting on a brave face for his late son’s three heartbroken siblings this festive season.

‘Halloween was real, real bad. That was Sammy’s favorite holiday,’ he said in comments to DailyMail.com.

‘It’s the kickoff to the whole holiday season. We’re still doing stuff as parents for our children that are still here, and making sure that they have a positive, happy upbringing.’

Sammy’s asphyxiated young body was found by his 13-year-old brother on May 5.

Bullies at the boy’s elementary and then intermediate school had tormented him after the family relocated from Florida in November 2022.

They mocked his ‘beaver’ teeth, told him to kill himself, and likened him to serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

Shockingly, a teacher even joined in, saying Sammy did indeed resemble the psychopath from Milwaukee.

The boy was chocked and battered around the head with an iPad.

After his death, one of his tormentors was even seen photographing his open casket and then smirking at her phone screen.

Sammy’s torment was in-person, but many other victims often suffer online.

Lila Bradshaw was just 14 when she was found dead in her Idaho bedroom in May after a cyber-bullying campaign orchestrated by the girl she thought was her best friend.

The freckled eighth-grader was a straight-A student who loved art, animals and coloring her hair.

She was bullied at school for four years. But like many parents, her dad, Tristan Bradshaw, knew too little about her hardships to help, he says.

‘Hear what our kids are going through and what they aren’t talking about,’ the musician wrote on Facebook after releasing a musical tribute to his daughter.

Often, children are ‘trying to make us proud or be tough,’ he added.

The same goes for the parents of Ashley Scott, 14, a kind-hearted cheerleader who helped the homeless, and killed herself in October in Douglas County, Colorado.

Anne and Troy Henington suspect their daughter was bullied, but have had no indication from Ashley’s school about what was done to stop it.

Experts say that parents are frequently in the dark about their kids’ suffering at school.

Adolescents and their parents can have a hard time talking about problems.

Love, fear, guilt, shame and other overwhelming emotions easily get in the way.

Other moms and dads know about their kid’s woes — they just don’t know how to help them.

Some ask teachers for support, and feel let down when schools don’t act.

In Santa Clara, California, grieving dad Jose Bautista knows all too well what happened to his son.

Jose Zamora, 14, killed himself last month after being taunted by schoolmates about being homeless and motherless.

They included teammates on his junior varsity football team.

‘They were spitting on him, hitting him on the back of the helmet,’ Bautista told KTVU.

‘I miss hearing him, seeing him, I miss picking him up.’

The same goes for the parents of Flora Martinez, 12, who killed herself in May after months of bullying at her school in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Alice Martinez and Joshua Parker blame Clark County School District for not protecting the girl.

They’d reported her torment to school officials and applied for her to be moved elsewhere, but it continued.

‘My daughter was literally bullied to death,’ her grieving mom told 8 News Now.

For some families, bullying is part of wider issues that are even tougher to address.

Desire Williams, 17, a Buffalo, New York, schoolgirl, ended her life in September.

Schoolmates started picking on her after she was sexually assaulted by a boy at another school, says her mom Sarena Worthy.

The teen, who suffered from mental health problems, was a ‘walking angel,’ she says.

Worthy knew about the bullying and also tried to transfer her daughter to another school, but was told this was not possible, she says.

In other cases, bullying is suspected, but the actual reason for a youngster’s suicide remains shrouded in mystery.

Pennsylvania schoolgirl Abby Smith, 14, a longtime Girl Scout and school band member, took her own life in May.

Her dad Jonathon Smith said she suffered from anxiety, but also knew of reports of bullying being probed by state police. 

Months after the tragedy, he said it was ‘frustrating beyond belief’ that the family knew so little about the investigation into Abby’s death.

She’s just one among some two dozen US kids who take their own lives each year after classroom bullying, according to data from the United Educators Association.

The US Department of Education warns that about a quarter of students are bullied regularly.

Those numbers are getting worse, thanks to a youth mental health crisis driven in part by peer pressure and round-the-clock social media.

The Megan Meier Foundation, a Missouri-based nonprofit, says kids who’ve been bullied or cyber-bullied are twice as likely to try to end their lives as others.

Still, it’s not an easy problem to tackle.

Teachers and police officers who’ve investigated cases of bullying say it’s difficult to address.

Parents and victims frequently request action against offenders — but often the reported behavior does not meet the criteria for sanctions or prosecution.

Some experts also say there’s no direct link between bullying and suicide.

Brenda Carrillo, director of student services at Santa Clara Unified School District, which was roiled by Zamora’s death, says it’s a ‘complex issue.’

‘The idea of conflating suicide and bullying is a dangerous idea,’ says Carrillo.

Parents of bullied school kids increasingly launch wrongful deaths lawsuits against schools and teachers for failing to act.

They often do this after police end their probes without charging any alleged bullies.

This month, the Teusches filed a wrongful death complaint against Greenfield-Central Community School Corporation for ignoring their 20 reports of young Sammy’s suffering. 

The civil suit says teachers took a ‘callous disregard’ to his welfare, at times blaming the victim and even joining in with the offenders.

The district declined to comment on the case to DailyMail.com. It has previously said no bullying reports were filed.

But lawsuits like the one launched by the Teusches have a patchy track record.

An Arizona judge this summer kicked out a similar complaint against Chandler Unified School District, which had been brought by one of the parents of a student who died by suicide in 2022.

The suit alleged the freshman was bullied and harassed, but that the school did not do enough to stop it. The district denied the allegations.

Against this backdrop, the Teusches have also launched Sammy’s Tree Foundation as another way to fight the scourge.

The non-profit is aimed at helping child bullying victims report their tormentors and talk openly about their problems in class.

‘Our main goal is to let everybody know that right now suicide is the second-leading cause of death in children,’ said Sam.

‘It’s something I didn’t know, because they don’t let us talk about it. There’s a stigma: You’re not allowed to even say the word.’