Bullies had been hounding high school freshman Teddy Molina for years, making fun of him for being mixed race and threatening to hurt or even kill him, his family says.
The teasing from a group known as the “wolf pack” grew so bad that Molina wound up leaving his Corpus Christi, Texas, school last month. Then he took his life last week with a hunting rifle.
Molina’s death has triggered outrage and tumult in his South Texas community: an anti-bullying rally erupted into violence, a rumored gun threat online led to a stepped up police presence at Flour Bluff High School and a number of parents have come forward claiming that the district is not doing enough to combat bullying.
“We need to come together and we need to stop this, and we need to do it peacefully,” his sister, 18-year-old senior Misa Molina, told msnbc.com.
Bullying has become one of the hottest issues facing schools, with a newly released documentary focusing on the issue, and sites like Facebook and Twitter allowing rumors and taunts to spread like wildfire.
