An eleven-year-old boy who was reportedly bullied and pressured to sell drugs at school, has taken his own life in a bizarre incident by hanging himself.
The deceased, Julio
A Texas mom is distraught after her 11-year-old son took his life after being bullied at school, according to family members.
Mayra Rodriguez said her son, Julio, a sixth grader at L.V. Stockard Middle School in Dallas, was being bullied and pressured to sell drugs at school before his took his life last Thursday.
Rodriguez said she had noticed her toddler son wasn’t in his crib that night and when she asked him why, he told her that Julio had kicked him out of the room.
“I went into his room. That’s where I found him hanging down,” Rodriguez told InsideEdition.com. "My son hanged himself in the closet due to bullying.”
Rodriguez said she began noticing drastic changes in Julio’s behavior just days before his death.
“Days prior to the accident he had told me, 'Mom if I fight in school would you get mad at me?' because he was a person that wouldn’t fight with nobody and I said ‘yeah, you go to school to learn.’”
Rodriguez said that she'd instructed her son to go to teachers and counselors to talk to them about the problem, but he said he had and they hadn’t listened.
“I knew something was going on because he was hitting the table, hitting the walls. I didn’t know the severity of the situation. I didn’t know how bad it was. I wish I could have acted but that’s just wishing,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez, who has three other children that have graduated from the school and a seventh grader who still goes there, said her daughter had seen the bullying but didn’t think it was serious.
Robyn Harris, a spokesperson for the Dallas Independent School District, told InsideEdition.com that Julio did visit a counselor before his death, but the counselor had asked him to come back after lunch. Harris said when the counselor looked for Julio, he was in class taking a test.
"The student was a really upbeat kid. He volunteered and spent time with the teachers," Harris said. She said there was no evidence of bullying.
Still, Rodriguez said she blames the school for what happened. "Our house is not an aggressive environment. We are a very loving family. I don’t know how this escaped out of our hands,” Rodriguez said.
“I should have stepped in more and looked into it more,” she continued. “I can’t cry no more. When I hold his clothes, it hurts me. When I see his backpack, it drains me. I say, 'how can this happen this way?' Talk to your kids. Love your kids every day.”