Bullied Indiana student commits suicide

Billy Lucas | "The Advocate"

Billy Lucas, a 15-year-old student at Greensburg High School, hanged himself after other students continually bullied him because they thought he was gay.

“People would call him ‘fag’ and stuff like that, just make fun of him because he’s different, basically,” Dillen Swango, a fellow student at the southeastern Indiana school, said to Fox59 News.

Billy’s mother found his hanging body inside her barn on Sep. 9. Earlier that same day, some students told Billy to kill himself.

“They said stuff like ‘You’re like a piece of crap,’ and ‘You don’t deserve to live.’ Different things like that. Talked about how he was gay or whatever,” said Swango.

Principal Phil Chapple knows bullying goes on in his school, but he said he didn’t know Billy was one of the victims.

“We’re discussing where we are going. Where we are looking to establish a committee,” Chapple said to Fox59 News.

One former student, who is 21-years-old now, has awful memories of high school that were retriggered by Billy’s death.

“I was bullied several times because I was gay,” the former student, who did not want to be identified, said to Fox59 News. “I was called fag, queer. I was thrown up against lockers. I would tell the school officials about it and they would dismiss it. I also attempted to commit suicide.”

Schoolmates have created a Facebook page in Billy’s honor.