MILTONA, Minn. - The news of a high school student’s suicide began circling social networking sites Monday morning, after the news began spreading that 18-year-old Jefferson High School student Lance Lundsten had died over the weekend.
Around 10 p.m. Saturday the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office responded to an emergency call at the Lundsten’s residence in Miltona.
When officers arrived, they discovered 18-year-old Lance Lundsten needing emergency medical care. Lundsten was transported to the Douglas County Hospital where he later died.
The Sheriff’s Office confirmed to KSAX that they believed Lundsten’s death was a suicide. The Sheriff would not confirm the nature of the medical emergency.
According to his Facebook page, Lundsten was openly gay. On a Facebook memorial page in Lundsten’s honor, friends said that Lundsten had been bullied at school for his sexual orientation. Some students who knew Lundsten believed the bullying may have led to his suicide.
“Bullying is a huge issue, particularly with the youth in our country now,” Facilitator of the Diversity Resource Action Alliance Shari Maloney said. “I think because we’re in central Minnesota, and we aren’t as diverse as some of the larger Metropolitan areas are, someone who is different maybe draws more attention and it’s not always positive.”
Maloney said she works everyday to make Alexandria a more accepting place for community members and visitors. She said she has seen improvement, but there is still a long way to go.
“I think we are a welcoming community, but I think we are also a very traditional community as well,” Maloney said. “As the world changes, I’m not sure if we’re changing.”
Another Jefferson High School student started a Facebook group following Lundsten’s death called the Jefferson Anti-Bully Coalition.
Lundsten’s funeral is set for Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Anderson Funeral Home in Alexandria.
RIP Lance.
so once again, a young kid is driven to suicide by homophobic abuse and bullying
i've been the victim of homophobic abuse, and still am, and it sucks. a lot. i would go into further detail, but i'm sure most of you know about my Christmas Eve story.
you tell me SE++: do you think there will ever be a time where people can just be themselves, with no fear of bullying or harassment?
Posts
The end.
That story is sad though.
Every morning before class started, I had to walk passed the library in the main court yard, and a kid would always yell "FAGGOT" to me. One time I stopped and said to him that he was the sole reason why kids wanted to bring guns to school. He laughed, spit on me, and called me a faggot.
Pfffttt Not in SE++
Toughen up, nerds.
Best advice ANYONE CAN GIVE. HONEST. NOT SARCASTIC AT ALL.
that is every kind of awful
i used to get called a faggot and did people's homework for money in middle school
Kids are evil and so long as there's a group of people that are looked down upon there will always be bulling.
Man I got teased for my name. Kids will look for anything. It doesn't matter if you're gay or not.
that sucked
and it wasn't even that bad, i cant imagine what some other kids go through these days
i wish bullying would stop, but adolescence is such a strange period where people don't really know the boundaries and consequences of actions
i just hope people that are bullying find a way to tell someone and find a way out that isn't suicide or hard drugs or what have you
this is like one time recently when i got bullied
i snapped back at the kid and basically went on a tirade about how he and everyone like him were the reason why the american dream will always be an unachievable myth and how he was an awful human being beyond redemption
at one point i compared him to Glenn Beck, and then he started to cry, which made me feel bad
Steam
Later, the individual in question took a bad fall and was paralyzed from the neck down.
Mother of all mixed emotions, there.
Why I fear the ocean.
But actually no. Its not. Not always, anyway,
Because bullies are the popular kids. Punching the popular kids makes you less popular and therefore more bullied.
Better to join a group they won't fuck with, or get used to it.
Also I'm pissed.
Sorry hugs, you get all the hugs I got.
I just smirked and answered, "Ah, so two wrongs make a right in your world. Fascinating."
And he looked at me like he was going to whoop my ass.
http://www.itgetsbetter.org/
When I was a kid in middle school I was bullied some. For me it was more the FEAR of being bullied that scared me and I got off easy compared to a lot of kids I hear about. It made me pretty insular for a large part of my teens.
It feels positive that more people are aware of bullying now, though it's unfortunate that certain types of bullying, particularly homophobic shit, is supported b a subset of adults.
Secret Satan
fixed a lot of mine, your mileage might vary of course. Talking things out with people also fixed a lot of problems. Also being likeable.
Who's putting homophobic sociopathogens in our drinking water?
Mostly I think its parents and the schools. One of the kids who beat up on me for forever? yeah he got expeled and his parents put him in catholic school, now hes a pastour and a father of 2. I see a lot of little shits at my work, kids who cause problems for the sake of it, and when we kick them out we get phone calls from the parents saying their little angels would never throw popcorn at a handicapped guy. Except that I saw it. raise your kids to treat people with respect and none of this kind of shit will happen.
/end rant
I received plenty of bullying growing up, and most of it was other kids calling my friends and myself gay (we weren't) and otherwise acting like we were dogshit. Never was a fan of my class, and most of my friends were a year older or younger than I was. Freshman year of high school upgraded to straight-up physical abuse until I found out what little baby cowards those fucks were. At least one of them wrote back to me online years later (claiming to be drunk, to boot) apologizing for the shit he did, blaming his actions on a rough home life, which is something I was never willing to dispute. It actually felt good having a reasons why, even if it was from just one kid that likely didn't represent the majority.
Just felt like saying that. :S
Twitch (I stream most days of the week)
Twitter (mean leftist discourse)
Gives them more reason to be more violent, you see.
Then got suspended for beating up said kid who wound up in Catholic School after he punched me in the balls.
Shitty as it is in many respects I love that my highschool is so drat nice.
Dan Savage is basically the best person ever for this and also all those other things he does
i was bullied in elementary school because i was pretty much fresh off the boat, didn't really do anything about it, it just stopped after a while, nothing too serious.
i wish more bullying situations had resolutions like in the movies, with an embarassing comeuppance and a freeze frame with a shitty ending for the bully written out in text
nobody?
that's what I thought
By the later years of high school I was actually friends with some of them.
So yes, in my case fighting back was the answer, but it was also a special case since I had the advantage of being a cyborg. In most cases I would say violence isn't the answer because depending on the bully they either are doing it just to get a rise out of you (much like an internet troll), or they are doing it to feel superior(thus if you fight back and lose they'd validate their opinion, and if you fight back and win they'd likely seek revenge for their bruised ego which creates more problems).
Twitch (I stream most days of the week)
Twitter (mean leftist discourse)
people will bully people period, they find a sensitive issue with the person and exploit it