{"id":58751,"date":"2025-05-13T16:36:27","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T16:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=58751"},"modified":"2025-05-13T16:36:27","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T16:36:27","slug":"father-of-bul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=58751","title":{"rendered":"Father of bul."},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One year after his 10-year-old son lost his battle to the bullying that inspired his suicide, the father of Indiana\u2019s Sammy Teusch said it\u2019s \u201cdisgusting\u201d and \u201cdevastating\u201d that there\u2019s been no accountability from the educators who failed to help the tormented young boy.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While leaving his brother\u2019s soccer game On May 4, 2024, 10-year-old Sammy Teusch pointed toward a boy on the field and quietly told his parents, \u201cThat\u2019s him,\u201d recalled his father Samuel, with a heavy heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At first the kids at Greenfield elementary were verbally abusing Sammy<\/a> about his looks, including his glasses and teeth, and, over time, it escalated to physical violence, Teusch told the Daily Mail<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The youngster had been wearing starter glasses until the new ones arrived \u2013 $525 specs that he hoped would help end the bullying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Helpless\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The family had already sounded the alarm, reaching out to the school district multiple times, desperately seeking help. Yet the bullying<\/a> continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to his dad, Sammy begged his teachers to intervene but was \u201cignored.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following an incident months before where Sammy was hit on the school bus and \u201cgot into trouble for it,\u201d Teusch recalls that his son said, \u201cDaddy, it\u2019s okay. [Educators] don\u2019t care. They\u2019re not listening to me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe felt helpless\u2026 And the school told us every time that they don\u2019t accept bullying, and they were going to do everything in their power to end this, but it never ended.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking with People<\/a>, Teusch shared that the family was getting no support from the school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d talk to the school. They\u2019re like, \u2018Sammy\u2019s a discipline problem.\u2019 And I\u2019m like, \u2018What? Isn\u2019t it obvious \u2013 he\u2019s hiding under a desk and hiding in a closet and hiding in the bathroom. What\u2019s he hiding from?\u2019\u201d the heartbroken dad said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sammy\u2019s last morning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Sunday morning after the soccer game, Teusch found his youngest son cuddling in bed with his mother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"No<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want pancakes, Daddy,\u201d Sammy told his father after he was asked what he wanted for breakfast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Happy to please, the doting dad headed to the store with one of Sammy\u2019s older brothers, Xander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Teusch family believes that two years of bullying \u2013 including cruel taunts telling Sammy to take his own life \u2013 led to this devastating loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe wasn\u2019t depressed\u2026 he was a happy little boy,\u201d Teusch told the Daily Mail, adding there was no indication his son was suicidal<\/a>. \u201cHe was so full of life and loving and caring\u2026He was scared to death in a moment and thought this was his only way out. I still can\u2019t believe he\u2019s gone.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Childhood suicide<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

According to the Centers for Disease Control<\/a> (CDC), one in five 5 students between the ages of 12 and 18 face bullying at school each year in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while suicide in children under the age of 10 remains rare, experts<\/a> warn that suicide is \u201cresponsible for more deaths among youths ages 10 to 24 years than any single major medical illness.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEverybody loved Sammy. He had 100 friends, but he had six to eight kids that tormented him into the grave, and I won\u2019t let this happen to any other families,\u201d said Teusch, who\u2019s committed to raising awareness about suicide in children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI want to be the last parent crying on television,\u201d Teusch told ABC<\/a>, adding of his beloved son, \u201cWe all cherished Sammy. In a lot of ways, he was our leader.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No accountability<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

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 \u2013 a deep need for justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teusch says the students who relentlessly bullied his son at the school have faced no visible consequences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaint details the heartbreaking reality of Sammy\u2019s final months and names several school officials, including Principal Branson Curtis and Superintendent Dr. Harold Olin, both of whom remain in their roles today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s disgusting, it\u2019s shocking, and it\u2019s devastating,\u201d Teusch said. \u201cThere 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat kind of message does that send?\u2026 The bullies will go on to target other kids because they think it\u2019s okay\u2026 they\u2019ll think, \u2018I killed one and I got away with it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He adds, \u201cAnd if this can happen to Sammy, this can happen to any child on Earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018The world through Sammy\u2019s eyes\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Referring to Sammy\u2019s funky new glasses that sadly arrived two days after he took his life, Teusch adds, \u201cWhenever I miss him, I can pick those glasses up and still see the world through Sammy\u2019s eyes\u2026We all miss him terribly\u2026 but in his name we\u2019re going to change the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Instagram<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Teusch family\u2019s hope is not for revenge, but for accountability, awareness, and change \u2013 so that no other child, and no other family, has to endure such unimaginable pain.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Please share this story and help the Teusch family change the world \u2013 in Sammy\u2019s name.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One year after his 10-year-old son lost his battle to the bullying that inspired his suicide, the father of Indiana\u2019s Sammy Teusch said it\u2019s \u201cdisgusting\u201d and \u201cdevastating\u201d… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58751"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58753,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58751\/revisions\/58753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}