PEABODY, Mass. — A North Shore community is calling for action following the sudden death of a middle school student in Peabody over the weekend.
14-year-old Jason Benard took his own life after struggling with bullying, according to his family.
The community is heartbroken by the loss, and say that bullying has been a big issue at Higgins Middle School, where Benard was a student.
Several parents came forward and spoke to Boston 25 News about their own children’s struggles with bullying in the district.
“You know, your kid starts to question their worth at such a young age, it’s awful,” said Nicole Diotte, a concerned parent.
She said she just pulled her two children from Peabody Public Schools this year because of the bullying her son faced.
At one point she says her son suffered a concussion after a physical attack from another student at the Captain Samuel Brown Elementary School.
“He got picked up and then thrown onto the back of his head in a reading room and he threw up, had some blood, and he cleaned that all up himself and then he finished his day off at school,” said the Peabody mother.
Diotte claims no one from the school notified her about the incident. She ended up taking her son to the hospital.
“He was slurring, he had double vision, one of his pupils was bigger than the other — he had to have an MRI," she said.
Another Peabody mother, who did not want to be identified because she currently has a child within the school system, says her child was constantly bullied by another child for years.
“My child has actually attempted suicide due to the bullying,” the mother said. “Every time it was reported verbally, it wasn’t documented by the school officials, and so when the child told my child to slice her wrists with a razor blade, we were told that that wasn’t considered bullying because it was a first offense.”
The mother reported the issue to not only school district leaders and police, but to the state as well.
After reviewing her case, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education responded with a letter, finding that Peabody schools had “areas of non-compliance” with the state and needed to take corrective action.
The action included revising its bullying prevention plan to providing bullying training to “all School staff members, including the School’s administration and guidance counselors.”
In March, the state closed the case after finding Peabody schools complied with the changes to its bullying plan.
In August, the district provided anti-bullying training, which 32 staff members attended.
“I hope that this never happens again because I actually pulled my kids out of school fearing that this could happen to them,” Diotte said.
Parents say more needs to be done to protect students in the wake of Bernard’s death.
“Kids are just mean, and the parents, either the parents are just not aware or just nobody’s doing anything about it,” said Diotte.
The Peabody Public Schools Superintendent offered his sympathies to the grieving Bernard family.
He also said grief counselors will be available to all students.
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a network of local crisis centers that are available 24/7 to provide support for youth and adults who are in any kind of emotional crisis. Using the 988 Lifeline is free and confidential.
To contact the Lifeline, call or text 988.
More information can be found here.
A GoFundMe has been set up for the Bernard family in lieu of the tragedy.
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