Kayla Weishuhn, the sister of Kenneth
Weishuhn Jr., has said she believes her brother was bullied to death
for being gay.
Kenneth, 14 of Primghar, Iowa, was
found by his stepdad at 3AM Sunday in the garage. He had hanged
himself. Friends and family paid their last respects on Wednesday
evening.
Last month, the high school freshman
had come out gay.
“There was a group made on Facebook,
it was called People Against Gays,” Kayla said in a video posted on
YouTube. “Well, all the sophomore guys had a problem with my
brother being gay. Nobody else did. Well, I guess they did, but
they kept it to themselves more or less. Well, one of the sophomore
boys had made this hate group on Facebook. And on Facebook, I guess,
sometimes how it works is when you add people it will join you and
tell you get yourself out of it and so my brother went on that night,
Saturday night, and saw that a lot of his friends had been added onto
that and he didn't know. So, we're thinking that's what triggered
him to do it.”
Officials at South O'Brien Community
School have acknowledged that four sophomore boys bullied Kenneth at
school last month.
Kenneth's mother, Jeannie Chambers,
said she knew that her son was being bullied but added he had
dismissed her concerns.
“When I talked to him, he blew it off
like it wasn't a big deal,” Chambers told the Sioux City
Journal.
Chambers added that Kenneth pleaded
with her not to intervene over fears it would make matters worse.
Kayla, who described Kenneth as a
beautiful person and her best friend, said she forgave her brother's
detractors for calling him “queer” and “faggot,” then added,
“but I won't ever let it go. I won't. And I'm going to push this
as far as it can go. And I'll be sure that you get what's coming to
you.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this page.
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Kenneth was laid to rest Thursday
morning.