Bethany Thompson brain cancer survivor shoots herself dead after merciless bullying. How one Ohio girl was left in despair despite beating cancer.
Bethany Thompson an eleven year old brain cancer survivor has died after shooting herself dead at the back porch of her Cable, Ohio home.
The girl’s death Wednesday week ago, October 19, is believed to be the result of her being mercilessly bullied, after a brain tumor left the 11 year old grin with an uneven grin.
Said, Wendy Feucht, the girl’s mother via the Columbus Dispatch: ‘I think that she was just done. She didn’t feel like anybody could do anything to help her.
‘People need to know that even the littlest things can break someone.’
According to the mother, on the day Bethany LouAnn Thompson shot herself, she had spoken to a female friend of her plan to commit suicide.
Told the mother: ‘She told her she loved her and that she was her best friend forever, but that she was going to kill herself when she got home.’
The mother also said that her daughter’s friend informed her several peers had frequently teased them.
Not known was who owned the gun that Bethany used to kill herself.
According to Bethany’s father and Feucht’s ex-husband Paul Thompson, the couple’s daughter went through brain cancer in 2008.
The father said his daughter’s uneven grin was caused by a tumor that was removed.
The father said fellow students noticed and several bullied Bethany, explaining: ‘I think that’s why she took [her life].’
Added the father who believes the teasing could have been avoided: ‘She was my baby girl. Everybody knew she was my princess. And she was a spoiled one.’
Bethany was a survivor, eight years ago enduring brain cancer and the removal of a tumor that damaged nerves and gave her a ‘crooked’ smile, her father said.
Kids in the fifth-through-eighth-grade school noticed, said Thompson. Some picked on her.
Reiterated the father: ‘I think that’s why she took (her life).’
Bethany had attended Triad Middle School.
While conceding that Bethany had been teased the year before, School Superintendent Chris Piper insisted that the bullying had stopped.
Told the school official: ‘There was no evidence of a pattern of bullying this year.’
Piper revealed there are endeavors ‘to change the school climate … and re-evaluate our anti-bullying educational side so that we are able to determine when things go from normal misbehavior to a pattern of bullying and to deter and stop misbehavior’.
Of note, a report via the UK’s sun cites Bethany’s mum saying that her daughter had recently made anti-bullying posters to put up at school – but had been blocked from doing so by an administrator who said they weren’t positive enough.
An online obituary for Bethany said: ‘She was born December 17, 2004 in Marysville, Ohio. Bethany was currently a sixth grader at Triad Local Schools.
‘She enjoyed swimming, coloring, shopping – especially Goodwill, music, Super Heroes and Pokemon.
‘Every year, she looked forward to attending vacation Bible school and church camp. She loved all animals, horseback riding and her family.’
