Eden is hosting a special event honoring the life and remembering the death of Seth Walsh, the Tehachapi gay teen whose suicide is said to have been caused by hate-based bullying at school, this Wednesday, Sept. 28.
That date marks the one-year anniversary of the day when Wendy Walsh lost her son.
“His laugh was like nothing else,” Walsh told San Diego LGBT Weekly. “People always say someone’s laugh was intoxicating; Seth’s really was.”
A proposed law, AB 9, more commonly known as “Seth’s Law,” is aimed at giving schools and police “specific tools” to protect students from the kind of bullying Seth Walsh, who was 13 at the time of his death, endured for several years. At the time of this writing, AB 9 was awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature. Brown is expected to sign Seth’s Law.
“We desperately need a comprehensive law that will protect students from intolerance and abuse at the hands of bullies,” Walsh said. “Nine out of ten gay students experience bullying at school.”
Walsh was deeply disappointed when police in Tehachapi informed her that nothing could be done legally about the students who had participated in what she describes as the vicious bullying that led her son to hang himself. There simply were no laws that applied. Seth’s brother Shawn Walsh, now 11, was not only the person who discovered his brother hanging from a tree, he was the only one who could safely climb up to remove a cloth that his brother had used to cover his face.
“His face was blue,” said mother Wendy. “These bullies not only took the life of one boy, but they robbed another one, Shawn, of his brother and best friend.”
“Remember Seth Walsh” will take place from 6-9 p.m. An award will be given to San Diego Unified School District superintendent William Kowba. Wendy and Shawn Walsh will also be present. Wendy will offer her thoughts on Seth’s Law, the role of schools in protecting students from hate and intolerance, and, on Seth’s life.
“He told me: ‘Mom, I think I’m gay in third grade,” she said. “He had a boyfriend in sixth grade, and they’d walk to school together holding hands.”
But by the time he was attending middle school, Seth stuck a toe into the proverbial closet.
“It got so bad, he tried to be straight,” she said. “But that didn’t last after he kissed a girl. For him, it was like, ‘blech,’ and ‘OK, I’m gay.’”
Vincent Pompeii, international conference chair of Supporting Students – Saving Lives of the Center For Excellence in School Counseling and Leadership at San Diego State University understands why the pressure put upon Seth by classmates became too much for him to bare.
“I train districts on dealing with the suffering of LGBT youth,” Pompeii said “The problem is made worse because these youth are less likely to report abuse at the hands of classmates because of fear, because they feel they won’t be taken seriously or that administrators will brush off their complaints as ‘boys will be boys.’”
Pompeii’s organization holds an international conference on the subject of bullying and related issues in February. He helped organize the scheduled event at Eden.
San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, author of Seth’s Law, says the bill goes far to improve the lot of gay students in California.
“I think that Seth’s Law now is a big foot in the door that had been closed,” he told San Diego LGBT Weekly. “(But) nothing is ever over in Sacramento …”
Ammiano sees the bill he wrote as just the beginning of an effort to give LGBT youth an even playing field at school. Part of the process of working toward that end includes educating his peers.
“We familiarized my colleagues and the governor’s office with this issue to the max. No matter what happens, it’s not over. Let’s get it passed, and then let’s look at it again in terms of what we could add …”
Just how will Seth’s Law impact students? According to Assemblyman Ammiano, once the governor signs it, it will have a significant and positive impact right away.
“It will depend on the local school districts, but they will find that if they are in a school district where there is no straight gay alliance and all that – they will find there are confidential notifications and confidential services. The teachers will also be receiving detailed information around the issue. Those two things definitely mean something if you are feeling isolated.”
