Jackson Grubb: 9-Year-Old West Virginia Boy Kills Himself After Relentless Bullying At School
Relatives of a third grader from Raleigh County are trying to comprehend what could lead a 9-year-boy to end his own life.
The body of young Jackson Grubb was discovered in his West Virginia home on Saturday (September 10), so says Metro News. According to the report, “Jack,” as he was often referred to by his family members, had hung himself with a belt inside of his sister’s room after months of suffering from relentless bullying at his school, Sophia Soak Creek Elementary.
Jackson Grubb, 9-years-old, took his own life Saturday https://t.co/SdhY1y4FVc
— WDTN (@WDTN) September 14, 2016
Speaking to Metro News, Grubb’s uncle, Shane Baber, admitted that the targeted attacks definitely played a heavy hand in Jack meeting such a dark fate at an early age, even if it possible that death was not Jackson’s intended goal.
“I do believe bullying did play a part in it,” he said, “but I [also] want to believe that this boy went in there to try to scare his grandmother and have her find him — not find him dead, but find him struggling because I believe he was struggling inside.”
Jackson’s grandmother and guardian, Betsy Baber, confirmed that she was aware of some kind of problem going on with her grandchild, but due to his introverted nature, he never openly spoke out about his issues.
“I was spending time with him, trying to get it out of him,” she wistfully shared, “but Jack’s the type [of person that] holds things in. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t get [it out of] him. Just speaking from my heart, I believe that he just couldn’t take nothing no more. He had reached that point. But he didn’t think, I don’t believe, that it was going to go that way.”
As further explained by Ms. Baber, after weeks of becoming more and more despondent, Jack’s sister, whom Byers also looks after, attempted to cheer him up on Saturday by showing off a frog that she caught outside of their home. It was she who would ultimately come across the grisly discovery of Jack hanging above her bed with a belt around his neck.
“I don’t know what he was thinking,” Shane remarked. “He wanted to spend the night with me for two days, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on.”
Both Mr. and Ms. Baber claim that on top of being attacked in school, Jackson often had to deal with being teased and tormented by fellow children in his own neighborhood. It was part of the reason why the once-playful 9-year-old, who was nicknamed “Action Jackson,” began to falter in both his spirit and mood.
“In my opinion, it just got to be too much,” his grandmother believes. “There were too many [bullies], and it was every day, and the change in him, I saw it in [his] eyes.”
The investigation into Grubb’s death by the Raleigh County Sheriff’s Office, as well as an autopsy performed by the West Virginia Medical Examiner’s Office, found nothing out of the ordinary about the third grader’s passing. In fact, a statement provided by the Sheriff’s Office solidified that his fatality was one that occurred solely out of his own making.
“Based upon the examination of the scene and interview of various witnesses and neighbors,” it reads, as noted by FOX 5 News, “foul play is not suspected.”
A GoFundMe page to help the Grubb/Baber family with funeral expenses surpassed the initial $3,000 limit within days of its posting. Understandably, the monetary assist does nothing to quell the sadness and hurt of Jackson’s family, but none more so than that of his grandmother, who says that the place he once called “home” is getting far too difficult to continue living in.
“Just staying here has become unbearable because everything he has is here,” she admits. “I just need some help [to deal with the fact that] he’s gone now.”
[Featured Image by Nagib/Shutterstock]
