Mentor Ohio’s Awful Legacy Of Bullying And Teen Suicide And An Absence Of Any Adequate Response

In a little more than two years, four bullied high school students in the tiny Cleveland bedroom-community of Mentor, Ohio along the shores of Lake Erie have taken their own lives – the Associated Press reporting that there have been three suicides and one overdose of antidepressants. The most recent: 16 year old Sladjana Vidovic, who tied one end of a rope around her neck, the other around a bed post, before jumping out of her bedroom window, the native Croatian leaving a note that told a tale of daily torment that grew too much. Eric Mohat like to wear pink most of the time, the aspiring singer, a member of his school’s choir, bullying relentlessly because he was perceived to be gay, called fag, homo, queer, as well as being beaten. Two weeks prior to a choir trip to Hawaii, he shot himself in the head. After his funeral, his parents learned that in math class, Eric was routinely bullied, the teacher opting not to intervene. Meredith Rezak, a 16 year old at the same school, was a good friend of Eric’s. She was outgoing, athletic, and, when she joined the school’s Gay-Straight Alliance, came out. Three weeks after Eric’s funeral, distraught, she shot herself in the head. Jennifer Eyring – an accomplished equestrian – had a learning disability, developmentally delayed, and she also had a hearing problem. She was bullied so relentlessly she would beg her mother not to send her to school. One night, in the summer of 2006, she told her parent’s that she had taken some of her mother’s antidepressant pills in an attempt to feel better. Hours later, she was dead from an overdose. Two of the four families are suing the school district, the parents of Eric Mohat suing not only the district, but the principal, the superintendent, and the math teacher. The school and the district refuse to comment on the pending lawsuits, on their response or lack thereof to incidents of bullying, or of any anti-bullying programs that may have been initiated. Earlier this year, CNN and Money magazine named Mentor, Ohio, one the “100 Best Places to Live.”