A schoolboy from Utah tragically passed away after taking his own life following relentless bullying at school.
Drayke Hardman, 12, from the US, has tried to take his own life and died on February 10, 2022, after being bullied by a classmate over the past year.
He came home from school last Monday with a black eye and confided in his sister about an altercation with another student, but did not tell his parents the truth.
His parents, Samie and Andrew Hardman, from Tooele County in Utah, encouraged him to reach out if he needed help. Two days later, on Wednesday, Drayke asked to stay home instead of attending his basketball practice.
His parents said he seemed to be doing alright. But that night, Drayke took his life. He was discovered in his bedroom by his sisters and raced to the hospital, only to be pronounced dead in intensive care on Thursday morning.
Speaking to KUTV, Drayke’s parents said he was continually bullied, and one student was even suspended by the school.
Andrew and Samie spoke with their son about the bullying, and Samie had recently asked him if he had any suicidal thoughts. He said no but Samie said Drayke looked as though he was “disgusted” by the question.
Samie said: “Drayke’s personality was all about people. He loved to make people laugh. He loved to do what he could to always make sure that somebody had a friend.”
The Utah family says that Drayke had a heart of gold and was kind to everyone around him. They are devastated by the loss and want to do what they can to make sure no other parent has to go through this.
The Hardman family appealed to other parents to look out for the tell-tale signs of bullying in their own children’s lives and urged them to intervene to prevent further tragedies from taking place.
Samie explained: “Kids are going to be the kinds of kids that are going to do what they want until they know that it’s not OK. I think that that’s where those hard conversations come from.”
Andrew added that Drayke had been too frightened of consequences from his aggressor to come forward and tell them what was going on. He said the young basketball fan would often play it down or lie about how he had sustained his injuries.
Nathan Watkins, the Program Director of Wasatch Family Therapy, explained the psychology of bullying. Watkins said: “The bully is only projecting their fears onto the others around them.”
Watkins said it’s important to talk to children about bullying early on, stating: “Parents should start as early as kids spending time with other peers, other friends. Especially, maybe every time when they get ready to start the new school year, talking about how we can express kindness.”
Drayke was a huge Utah Jazz fan and even some of his favorite players have reached out, including Donovan Mitchell. Samie said: “And in his message, it says, “your boy will be taking the court with us tonight.”
The couple said they were sharing Drayke’s story to raise awareness about the appalling realities of playground bullying and promoted a social media hashtag, #doitfordrayke, to encourage people to be kind to one another and pay the generosity forward whenever possible.
A GoFundMe account has been set up by a family friend to support the costs of Drayke’s funeral and memorial service, with Utah Jazz basketball stars Donovan Mitchell, Joe Ingles, and Rudy Gobert already contributing after being alerted to the tragedy by Andy Hardman on Twitter, who told them how important the team had been to his late son.
The page has already raised more than $100,000 at the time of writing after Drayke’s story was shared across social media.
Writing about her bereavement on Instagram, Mrs. Hardman said: “This is the result of bullying, my handsome boy was fighting a battle that not even I could save him.
“My heart is shattered, I don’t know how to fix it, or if I ever will, but I will spend every minute teaching kindness in the memory of my favorite dude. I will say hold your babies, hold them tight. Teach them to live and to love fierce. Teach Kindness and #doitfordrayke,” she added.
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