A 12-year-old from Bedford County, Tennessee has died after suffering homophobic abuse from school bullies.
Content warning: This story may include topics that some readers may find uncomfortable.
At the end of November, seventh-grader Eli Fritchley took his own life after experiencing incessant amounts of bullying from his classmates.
Described as a “peaceful soul”, Eli was unapologetically himself and played the trombone in Cascades Middle school’s marching band.
In an emotional interview with WKRN, Debby and Steve Fritchley opened up about their son and the type of abuse he experienced.
“He was told because he didn’t necessarily have a religion and that he said he was gay that he was going to go to Hell. They told him that quite often,” Debby said.
She also said that because he painted his nails pink, and wore a Spongebob sweatshirt everyday students gave him a difficult time at school.
“I think probably because he was in the same clothes every single day that they used that as a weapon,” she explained.
“It was really abusive. I don’t think it was ever physical. I think it was just words, but words hurt. They really hurt,” Steve added.
Eli’s parents went on to say that their son combated the bullying with compassion and never pinpointed any of the perpetrators by name.
“He didn’t care, or at least we thought he didn’t care, and that’s what’s really difficult for us because we thought he didn’t care,” they said.
“This has just blindsided us. This is something we would have never, ever expected.”
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