A Tennessee teen who died by suicide was cyberbullied by his classmates over his perceived sexuality prior to his death, his family says.
A Tennessee teen who died by suicide last week was cyberbullied by classmates over his perceived sexuality prior to his death,Channing Smith, 16, a high school student in Coffee County, Tennessee, died by suicide between Sept. 22 and Sept. 23. Joshua Smith, Channing’s half-brother, said he discovered the cyberbullying after he was initially unable to identify a motive for Channing’s death.“I just went out on a limb and started cold messaging kids that were apparently his friends,”.
Joshua Smith said he found out that Channing had been sending sexually explicit texts to a boy from school. When a girl Channing had previously dated came across these messages, she shared screen shots on Snapchat and Instagram and “pretty much outs my brother for being gay,” he said.Faith Honea, Channing's classmate and friend, said other classmates started cyberbullying the teen who was not out as LGBTQ at the time.
"It just breaks my heart that people found out and made fun of him for it," she said."The people who exposed him had absolutely no right. They made fun of him, hurt him and above all made him feel alone."
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