Kenyan high school student commits suicide after missing field trip, family short on burial funds

by Harrison Maina, Ajabu Africa News, posted JAN 19, 2011
JACKSONVILLE, FL_A Kenyan 10th grade student committed suicide in Florida last Thursday after missing a school bus that was to bring his class to a field trip.

However, to his dismay, the operators of the bus did not open the door for the young boy, even as his friends inside the bus tried in vain to tell the teachers to let him in.

  “My brother called a friend of his inside the bus on a cell phone and asked him to tell the teacher to open the door for him but they did not”, said Rosemary Githiiyu, the late boy’s elder sister.
 
As the school bus drove off, young Githiiyu broke down in tears and returned to his mother’s car, asking her to chase the bus and honk for it to stop.

 “Follow it and honk mom. Honk mom, honk. It might stop”, pleaded the late Githiiyu as her mother gave chase to the school bus, as narrated by the mother to Ajabu Africa.

However, a few minutes into the chase, the school bus failed to stop and the family gave up the chase.

Having no other option, the mother apologized to her son for missing the bus, and asked him to go his class and join the other students who were not scheduled for the field trip.

“He was too devastated and refused to go to the class. I could see a lot of pain in his face and it also pained me a lot but I did not know what to do to console him”, said his mother, Elizabeth Githiiyu, on a telephone interview with Ajabu Africa News.

“I told him that if I knew how to drive all the way to the college they were supposed to visit in Orlando, (about 1.5 hours drive away), i would have driven him there, but i could not. His father was at work and could also not help”.

After the sad incident, Githiiyu's mother dropped her daughter to a different school that she attends and retuned home with her devastated son.

The late David Njoroge Githiiyu

 Once back to their house, the mother asked her son to accompany her to a hospital to pick up medical records required for her youngest son’s day care application.

 “He did not want to come with me to the hospital and so I left him in his bedroom with his laptop computer and electronic games”.

 But upon retuning back after only two hours, the mother was met by a horrifying sight of her son hanging from a belt fastened on a door in the kitchen room.

  “I walked in and placed new mail on the table and my bag on the couch, then went to the adjacent room to shift my laundry that I had left in the washing machine to the dryer”, said the mother.

“But when I turned to walk towards the kitchen, I saw him hanging from a belt fastened o a bar at the top of the kitchen door”, she added her voice again breaking with emotion.
 
 The mother said that she immediately held her son by the waist and hoisted him higher while trying to call him.

   “He did not respond at all and I got very shocked and fell on the floor. Then I gathered courage and got up to call the emergency number but the phone was not connecting”.

  According to the mother, after failing to get the emergency call answered, she rushed out to the neighbor’s house, screaming loudly for help.

  She said that it was her neighbors who were able to dial the correct number as they realized she had been dialing 999 instead of 911 as panic got better of her.

   “The emergency personnel told us to cut off the belt to free my son then administer CPR before they got there”.

 “After a few minutes, the emergency crews arrived and tried very hard to revive my son by administering CPR and shocking him but after a few minutes of trying, they told us that they are sorry that my son was already gone", added the mother.

 The mother said that she has never noted any problems with her son that would make him take away his life at such a young age.

She said that all she knows is that her son did not like her current school and had asked recently to transfer to a nearby school but did not give a reason why he wanted that.

Githiiyu’s parents actually tried to move their son to the other school he wanted but they were told that they had to wait since the transfer could not take place in the middle of the term.

 “He would not say much about what was going on in his school but we never thought there was a problem”, she added.

 According to Githiiyu’s sister, a friend of the late Githiiyu came to their home over the weekend upon learning of the death.

  The friend told the family that her brother hated their school because he was being bullied by some classmates and he felt bad about it.

 “She told us that some people were picking on my brother and making fun of his last name, his Kenyan accent, that he is foreign and that he is too small in size”, said the sister.

The family believes that, in retrospect, young Githiiyu must have been enduring   embarrassment at school with a few students making fun of his Kenyan background, his small build by nature, and his last name (Githiiyu), saying that it was funny and hard to pronounce.

 According the family, the late Githiiyu may have decided to take his life in a bid to avoid the embarrassment and ridicule from his classmates when they returned to school the next day after the field trip.

 “I wish it was just a school day he missed. I wish we found that school bus gone completely because this would never have happened”, said his dejected mother.
 
“I am very shocked”, said Ayub Njoroge, the father of the young son. I don’t even know how to express the loss we are experiencing right now”, he added.

 “The loss of this young boy has affected us all and the whole Kenyan community here”, said Martin Kabaki, a relative of the family, while pleading with the Kenyan community in the USA to help the family raise the over $2,000 remaining for the family to conduct a decent burial for the lost member.

An initial fund raising done by the small Kenyan community in Jacksonville FL over the weekend managed to raise about $6000,  but this was  $2000 short of the needed amount for the burial planned to take place in Florida.
 
Prayers and fundraising activities are taking place daily at the parent’s home at 2461 Sharon Lake Drive Jacksonville, Florida 32210.

Many students of direct African descent have been experiencing similar treatment at many schools around the country where their classmates have relentlessly made fun of their African last names and accents at one time or the other.

 A number of such affected students end up dropping from schools or continue to endure the pain with no help in sight, with parents ill equipped to handle the endemic problem.
Many parents are not aware if there are any advocacy groups that can offer counseling and help to such suffering children.

Experts advise parents to report such cases to their child’s teacher hoping that the teachers can take an appropriate action to protect the victims.

  Recently Massachusetts became the first state in the USA to create a law against  bullying in schools when Governor Deval Patrick signed the Anti- Bullying law in mid 2010.

Well wishers and friends can deposit donations in form of cash and checks to:

Bank of America Account #: 8980-4311-5685
Account Name: Ayub G. Njoroge

Visa/Master Card contributions are also accepted via PayPal. It’s free to set up an online account at PayPal.com all you need is your email address. Please make the contribution payable to Ayunjoro@yahoo.com

For more information, contact Martin Kabaki telephone #: (904)236-9966

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