Bullying apparent cause of 9th grader's suicide in Coweta

Within hours of a ninth-grader's suicide in the bathroom of the Coweta Intermediate School, the story of what apparently led the boy to kill himself has begun to come out from the parents of other students at the school.

A parent tells KRMG that his daughter was the target of a bullying campaign that lasted for years at three different schools, beginning in the fifth grade.

The father, whose name has been withheld by request for his daughter's sake, says threatening, vicious notes were left in her locker.

"Very horrible, I went to the principal and the guidance counselor about it and they say that it was criminal. They said if they could find out who it was that they would definitely call police," he told KRMG.

Eventually, they did take steps at the intermediate school to try and identify the bully.

They had new cameras installed and actually had on aimed at my daughter's locker to try and catch whoever was doing it.

When they did that, the notes stopped for my daughter and went to this (boy) that just committed suicide."

That tragic circumstance, he says, led directly to the boy's decision to end his own life.

"He just couldn't take it anymore. They (the notes) were criminal. 'Why don't you just do everyone a favor and kill yourself before we have to,' things like 'you deserve to be slaughtered like a pig' and things like that."

His daughter's other friend was very close to the boy, whose name KRMG is withholding out of respect for the family.

The friend, he says, spoke with the boy just fifteen minutes before he shot himself in the school bathroom.

The dad says he feels strongly the tragedy could have been prevented.

"Even though the principal seemed appalled, nothing was done. There were no assemblies, there was nothing announcing this to the student body that they were watching, they didn't contact parents, nothing. And now we have a suicide."

A video tribute, produced by the boy's friends at Coweta Intermediate School:

http://youtu.be/D6qP5kKeURc