Cameron Langrell was almost finished with his freshman year at Horlick High School, but the artistic student took his own life last week just days after he officially announced online that he was transgender.
“You don’t want what we had when you come home for work and find your child. I would never wish that on another parent,” Jamie Olender said.
Jamie and her husband, Eric Olender, found Cameron’s lifeless body in the basement after he took his own life.
His distraught parents said Cameron was a victim of severe and constant bullying at Horlick High School after he came out. His parents also said they were always very supportive of Cameron.
“Our hope is that it stops here, that Cameron’s voice will be heard,” Jamie Olender said.
WISN 12 News adds:
“Whoever you like doesn’t matter with us, and it shouldn’t matter with you or your friends. They love you for you,” Eric Olender said.
But Cameron still struggled to fit in with his classmates.
His parents said he recently got the courage to come out online as transgender and then just a few days later, he was dead.
Jamie and Eric said they think something happened at school and want district leaders to get more involved with the ongoing bullying at Horlick high.
“There needs to be more within the school, not just some outside resource. It needs to be taught in school,” Jamie Olender said.
Cameron isn’t the first student at Horlick to commit suicide from bullying.
WISN 12 News covered the vigil of Lexi Lopez who took her own life in December 2013.
The Olenders don’t want another family to go through their pain.
“Hug them every day because you never know which day is going to be the last day you hug them,” Jamie Olender said.
A Racine Unified School District spokeswoman released this statement:
We will continue to work with our entire Horlick family to enhance these programs.
Advocate adds:
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