A North Battleford family is struggling with shock and sadness after a 15-year-old boy took his own life.
“The pain in my heart… I’ve never felt so much pain,” said Kim Loik, Todd Loik’s mother.
Loik believes severe bullying drove Todd to kill himself, and she wants action taken.
“Grades five and six were the start of it. It wasn’t in the internet, but schoolyard bullying,” she said. According to Loik, as the years progressed, the bullying made it’s way online and into mobile technology like text messaging. She said Todd was visibly frustrated, but eventually he stopped talking to her about it.
The suicide, which was just days before his 16th birthday, was sudden.
Loik described her son as a regular teen. “He loved hanging out with his friends. He loved camping and the outdoors, he loved to fish,” she said.
At the North Battleford high school where Loik was a student, the students CTV spoke with said they didn’t know Todd well, but they were sad he was bullied.
“It makes me feel sad and sorry for his friends and family,” one student said. Another said the situation was frustrating and shows how stupid it is to be cruel to one another.
Loik has been in contact with the RCMP and received condolences from the premier. The province said it's taking cyber bulling very seriously.
“Whether it be hazing, online bullying, bullying in a school yard, or bulling where it takes place off site it’s not right for a child to go through,” said Minister of Education Don Morgan.
The family has set up a Facebook page in Todd’s memory.
Loik said she’s speaking out about Todd’s suicide because she wants to get the message out that bullying needs to stop. “Bullying has no colour, no race, nothing. It just needs to stop.”
