Bart Palosz, 15-Year-Old Sophmore, Commits Suicide After First Day of School
A high school sophomore from Greenwich, Connecticut committed suicide on Tuesday after finishing his first day of school.
Friends and classmates say Bart Palosz endured the bullying and torture of his classmates for years without saying much about his struggle. Originally from Poland and standing at 6 foot 3, he was teased for his Polish accent, large stature, and the pimples on his face.
"He always was kind of awkward in his body and kind of clumsy and how he carried himself," Lisa Johnson, whose 13-year-old son, Izzy, was a close friend of Palosz, told the Greenwich Times. "He didn't exude confidence but he was a total sweetheart of a guy. But kids never appreciated that."
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On his last day of 8th grade, Bart was rushed to the emergency room with a large gash on his forehead. Witnesses said a fellow classmate had intentionally rammed Bart's head into a locker. The school ruled it an accident, the Connecticut Post reported. During his first year at Greenwich High School, he was pushed down the stairs, shoved into bushes, and robbed of his brand new Android phone after a bully threw it to the floor and smashed it.
Bart shot and killed himself on Tuesday afternoon using a family gun that had been stored away in a gun locker.
"We had no idea," said Beata, Bart's 18-year-old sister who attended Greenwich High School with her brother last year, according to the Ct Post. "We were pretty close," she added saying that she and her brother shared lunch everyday, "but either way, he never told me much."
The family learned that Bart had been experiencing suicidal thoughts after his Google Plus account was discovered online.
"I notice if I sound sad I'm normal and if I act happy, cheerful, and "normal" there is a high chance that I will try to poison myself, cut myself, commit suicide, or jump in front of a truck," Bart wrote in a July 9th post.
"Hey if I were to stab my eye out due to school caused insanity, who would miss me?" he wrote in a different post on July 3rd with a picture of himself holding a knife to his eye.
Bart said in other posts that he had been teased at school over the past ten years. He moved from Poland with his family when he was just four years old. Former schools that Bart attended have stated that they will look in to his previous years of bullying.
"We are looking very carefully at what has happened over the last number of years here," Superintendent of Schools William McKersie said, "so we can make sure that all our students going forward do not have to face the kind of decision that Bart made (Tuesday)."
