A nine-year-old boy hanged himself with a belt after enduring persistent bullying at school.
Jackson Grubb from West Virginia in the US was found dead after experiencing “frequent” bullying, his family said.
His body was found by his younger sister who reportedly went into his room to cheer him up.
His grandmother and legal guardian, Betsy Baber, told reporters the family had known something was wrong, but had not known the extent of his problems.
“I was spending time with him, trying to get it out of him, but Jack’s the type to hold things in. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t get to him,” she told NBC news.
“Just speaking from my heart – I believe that he just couldn’t take nothing no more. He had reached that point.”
The boy’s grandfather, Shane Baber, added: “They were bullying him and they were picking on him. They were saying things to him. They were touching him and that led my grandson to do the things that he did.”
In America as many as 160,000 children a day do not attend school due to fears of being bullied, the US Department of Justice estimates.
US anti-bullying campaign Stand for the Silent says 8,000 children a year – 22 a day – commit suicide due to bullying in America.
