MANCHESTER, TN — Like other teens in the same situation, 16-year-old Channing Smith hadn’t publicly come out to his family and friends as bisexual. But the Coffee County Central High School junior from Manchester, Tennessee, talked about his sexual identity with a classmate in what he thought were private social media messages.
But two “kids that he trusted” obtained screen shots of the messages and publicly outed him on social media “in a deliberate attempt to assassinate his character,” his older brother, Joshua Smith, wrote on Facebook.
Hours later, his last thoughts about how he could possibly endure the humiliation he feared he would face at his rural high school the next day, Channing Smith shot and killed himself, his brother said.
That was on Sept. 22. Joshua Smith has vowed justice for his brother — and for all teens coming to terms with their sexuality or coping with bullying.
“Being gay shouldn’t be a death sentence,” he wrote on Facebook, adding, “Nobody deserves to die as they are figuring their way through this complex journey called life.”
Click Here: cheap INTERNATIONAL jersey
Federal health officials say suicide is the second-leading cause of death among adolescents. LGBTQ+ adolescents are more than three times more likely to attempt suicide than their heterosexual peers, according a study published last year that pooled data from 35 earlier studies.
Cyberbullying is an insidious form of bullying that those targeted find almost impossible to escape. As many as 59 percent of U.S. students experience some form of cyberbullying, according to findings last year by the Pew Research Center. In some cases, kids are tormented and bullied to death, anguished family members have told Patch in a long-running advocacy reporting project aimed at bringing awareness to the terrible toll bullying and cyberbullying take on America’s youths.
Joshua Smith vowed on Facebook “the world will hear more from me.” He refuses “to allow Channing’s death to pass by without justice and positivity manifesting from his grave.”
“I’m not sure the direction that I’m headed,” he wrote, “but I will fight against bullying, suicide and hate.”
‘Enough Is Enough’: Billy Ray Cyrus
What Smith, who lives in Kentucky with his family, is learning is that his younger brother’s classmates may have been more open than he realized.
The Tennessean reported the teen’s classmates are sporting homemade T-shirts and made posters vowing justice for Channing. Country music star Billy Ray Cyrus heard about the teen’s suicide and showed up at one of a couple of community memorial services to play one of Channing’s favorite songs, “Amazing Grace,” with the teen’s father, news station WZTV reported.
“My heart breaks for Channing, his family, his friends and the community,” Cyrus tweeted. “This is the saddest story. … Enough is enough.”
As welcome as the support has been, Smith worries it may come at a cost — an end to an investigation of cyberbullying that he pushed Coffee County authorities to pursue, using messages on his brother’s phone to build a case.
Authorities Prodded To Investigate Cyberbullying
It doesn’t help that Coffee County District Attorney Craig Northcott is under investigation by the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Board of Professional Responsibility, a probe demanded by more than 200 lawyers after he was shown in a 2018 video telling a group of pastors that because he doesn’t recognize the validity of “homosexual marriage,” he wouldn’t prosecute domestic violence cases involving same-sex marriage.
Northcott said in a written statement to The Tennessee Holler that his office has “encouraged, supported and cooperated in” an investigation into cyberbullying in the teen’s death, and charges will be filed if deemed appropriate.
“Any report that my office has failed or refused to act is inaccurate,” Northcott said.
Based on the comments Northcott has made, “you would think Manchester is anti-gay,” Smith told the Tennessean. “And I am sure there are people here he represents who believe that way. But nonetheless, the support of this community has been amazing.”
At a memorial service for Channing Sunday, his brother said the Coffee County school district “hopes you forget.” When some students tried to wear shirts supporting Channing at a homecoming rally Friday, the principal ordered them to take them off, Joshua Smith said.
“But we’re not going to let that happen. … Action is going to be taken. We don’t get Channing back, that’s done, can’t go backward. But we can use this incident to create change moving forward.”
‘My Son Would Not Be Dead’
The family’s ordeal shines a spotlight on the consequences of bullying and cyberbullying, Channing’s mom, Crystal Smith, told WTVF.
“Just because you think it’s cute or funny to make somebody embarrassed or humiliate them, think again,” she said. “Because if somebody would have realized that, my son would not be dead.”
Even before Channing’s private social media messages were shared, he had been bullied by classmates who said “no one liked him” and made fun of him because he sometimes “talked in a girly voice and walked with sass,” Keylee Duty, one of Channing’s classmates, told BuzzFeed News.
Resources
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: (800) 273-8255
The Trevor Project: Crisis intervention and counselor for LGBTQ+ youths
PFLAG: Resources for LGBTQ+ people, their parents and families, and their allies
Family Acceptance Project: Research, intervention, education and policy initiative to prevent health and mental health risks LGBTQ+ youths in the context of their families, cultures and faith communities
Coming out and risking being stereotyped as “gay, queer or sissy” isn’t easy in small, Southern towns like Manchester, Joshua Smith told BuzzFeed.
“You could be gay and still like the Confederate flag and shoot pistols. It’s complicated,” he said. “My dad is ultra-conservative, but would never disown him, but him being gay or anything like that would have been a hard conversation.”
Joshua Smith is raising money on GoFundMe to help his parents cover funeral expenses and replace income they lost when they took time off from work. Money also will be used in the fight against bullying.
“We cannot let this happen to another precious soul,” he wrote. “We all have kids and they all are subject to bullying.”
To parents, he said on Facebook: “No matter what, make sure your kids know that they’re the number one priority in your life and that nothing, no choice, nothing that they could do could ever separate them from your love. This way there’s not as much shame and guilt on anything going on in the kid’s life that they would hesitate to come talk to you about.”
As part of a national reporting project, Patch has been looking at society’s roles and responsibilities in bullying and a child’s unthinkable decision to end their own life in hopes we might offer solutions that save lives.
Do you have a story to tell? Are you concerned about how your local schools handle bullies and their victims?
Email us at [email protected] and share your views in the comments.
Selected Stories From The Project
From No Bully, Patch News Partner
From The Experts
What We’ve Learned