STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. – A 13-year-old committed suicide and blamed bullying at school for his fateful decision.
Daniel Fitzpatrick was found hanging in the attic of his family's Staten Island home on Thursday, just over a month after he had written a letter detailing the examples of bullying that came his way from classmates.
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In the same letter, Fitzpatrick said his own teachers at Brooklyn's Holy Angels Catholic Academy didn't listen when he asked for help.
After being called to the scene, police found another letter penned by Fitzpatrick in which he simply said, "I give up."
"I miss my son so much. It breaks my heart that it had to come down to this, because he was such a good person," said Daniel's mother, Maureen Fitzpatrick. "I'm never going to hug my son again. I don't want to bury my son."
In a Facebook video, Fitzpatrick's father said that he told school officials about the bullying.
The school and the Archdiocese of New York didn't immediately requests for comment.
The New York Daily News reports Fitzpatrick planned to go to school elsewhere this fall.
An online fundraiser launched with a $10,000 goal to pay funeral expenses for Fitzpatrick has raised over $105,000 from more than 2,700 donors in three days.
The family says it plans to donate some of the raised money to efforts to fight bullying and encourage suicide awareness.