One year after his 10-year-old son lost his battle to the bullying that inspired his suicide, the father of Indiana’s Sammy Teusch said it’s “disgusting” and “devastating” that there’s been no accountability from the educators who failed to help the tormented young boy.
While leaving his brother’s soccer game On May 4, 2024, 10-year-old Sammy Teusch pointed toward a boy on the field and quietly told his parents, “That’s him,” recalled his father Samuel, with a heavy heart.
The boy Sammy pointed out was one of several classmates who tormented him at school. And this boy, only one week before, had shoved him into a trash can while others laughed.
At first the kids at Greenfield elementary were verbally abusing Sammy about his looks, including his glasses and teeth, and, over time, it escalated to physical violence, Teusch told the Daily Mail.
The youngster had been wearing starter glasses until the new ones arrived – $525 specs that he hoped would help end the bullying.
‘Helpless’
The family had already sounded the alarm, reaching out to the school district multiple times, desperately seeking help. Yet the bullying continued.
According to his dad, Sammy begged his teachers to intervene but was “ignored.”
Following an incident months before where Sammy was hit on the school bus and “got into trouble for it,” Teusch recalls that his son said, “Daddy, it’s okay. [Educators] don’t care. They’re not listening to me.”
“He felt helpless… And the school told us every time that they don’t accept bullying, and they were going to do everything in their power to end this, but it never ended.”
Speaking with People, Teusch shared that the family was getting no support from the school.
“I’d talk to the school. They’re like, ‘Sammy’s a discipline problem.’ And I’m like, ‘What? Isn’t it obvious – he’s hiding under a desk and hiding in a closet and hiding in the bathroom. What’s he hiding from?’” the heartbroken dad said.
Sammy’s last morning
The Sunday morning after the soccer game, Teusch found his youngest son cuddling in bed with his mother.
“I want pancakes, Daddy,” Sammy told his father after he was asked what he wanted for breakfast.
Happy to please, the doting dad headed to the store with one of Sammy’s older brothers, Xander.
When the pair got home and called Sammy down for pancakes, Xander, 13, found the fourth-grader hanging in his bedroom, leaving his parents and three siblings heartbroken.
The Teusch family believes that two years of bullying – including cruel taunts telling Sammy to take his own life – led to this devastating loss.
“He wasn’t depressed… he was a happy little boy,” Teusch told the Daily Mail, adding there was no indication his son was suicidal. “He was so full of life and loving and caring…He was scared to death in a moment and thought this was his only way out. I still can’t believe he’s gone.”
Childhood suicide
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), one in five 5 students between the ages of 12 and 18 face bullying at school each year in the United States.
And while suicide in children under the age of 10 remains rare, experts warn that suicide is “responsible for more deaths among youths ages 10 to 24 years than any single major medical illness.”
“Everybody loved Sammy. He had 100 friends, but he had six to eight kids that tormented him into the grave, and I won’t let this happen to any other families,” said Teusch, who’s committed to raising awareness about suicide in children.
“I want to be the last parent crying on television,” Teusch told ABC, adding of his beloved son, “We all cherished Sammy. In a lot of ways, he was our leader.”
No accountability
While the Teusch family continues to carry the unbearable weight of losing their beloved Sammy, that heartbreak is now joined by a quiet but powerful anger – a deep need for justice.
Teusch says the students who relentlessly bullied his son at the school have faced no visible consequences.
What’s worse is that the tragic incident has also been mostly ignored by school officials at Greenfield-Central Community School Corporation, that is named in a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family.
The complaint details the heartbreaking reality of Sammy’s final months and names several school officials, including Principal Branson Curtis and Superintendent Dr. Harold Olin, both of whom remain in their roles today.
“It’s disgusting, it’s shocking, and it’s devastating,” Teusch said. “There has been no accountability. This happened on a Sunday, and on the Monday, [the bullies] go back into school like nothing has happened, and nothing is done, and nothing is said.
“What kind of message does that send?… The bullies will go on to target other kids because they think it’s okay… they’ll think, ‘I killed one and I got away with it.’
He adds, “And if this can happen to Sammy, this can happen to any child on Earth.”
‘The world through Sammy’s eyes’
Referring to Sammy’s funky new glasses that sadly arrived two days after he took his life, Teusch adds, “Whenever I miss him, I can pick those glasses up and still see the world through Sammy’s eyes…We all miss him terribly… but in his name we’re going to change the world.”
The Teusch family’s hope is not for revenge, but for accountability, awareness, and change – so that no other child, and no other family, has to endure such unimaginable pain.
Please share this story and help the Teusch family change the world – in Sammy’s name.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicide, please call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org
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