SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – A 12-year-old boy killed himself after facing constant bullying from classmates at his middle school.
Andrew Leach hanged himself in his family's Mississippi garage on March 6, according to WREG. The older brother of the 6th grader found his body.
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Leach's father says the suicide came after he was bullied by other kids at Southaven Middle School for coming out as a bisexual.
“He was struggling a lot internally with sexual orientation,” Matt Leach, Andrew's father, told WREG. “He finally came out with the information at school that he thought he may be bisexual. I think that really amped up the bullying.”
After Andrew's death, his family began to learn more and more about the torment he went through on an almost daily basis.
"Kids were telling him, 'We're gonna put hands on you. You're not going to make it out of this bathroom.' Things of that nature," his father said.
Andrew's family hopes his struggles will help others who feel the same way, urging them to seek help and not remain quiet.
"He was a very loving young boy. He had a contagious smile," Leach's mother, Cheryl Hudson, said. "He was outdoorsy. He loved to go camping. If you were down, he'd try to help you up."