Troubled Students, Staff Get Counseling After School Suicide
SOUTHGATE (WWJ) - The staff is back at Davidson Middle school and counseling is available for students, now one day since an 8th grade student shot and killed himself a school bathroom.
Southgate Schools superintendent Bill Gruseki said counselors will be on site as long as they are needed to talk with both school employees and kids who are troubled about what happened.
Gruseki told WWJ Newsradio 950's Chrystal Knight he's been talking to staff and students as well, while continuing to work through his own anxieties.
"Columbine, Newtown and, you know, the theater shootings -- you always have in the back of your mind and pray that it doesn't happened period again, and you really don't want it to happen in the district where you live in work. You know, my whole career I just prayed that that would never happen."
Gruseki said they still don't know why the student committed suicide, and that kids who told reporters the 13-year-old boy was bullied and teased are wrong.
"Everybody's quick to throw out the bullying term, because when a young person makes a final decision like this -- and this is what this young man did -- that is always the first thing that comes up, because of all the social media kids are involved in," Gruseki said.
"I talked to his former principal at our other middle school who said he was a sharp kid; he knew what was going on; he had a good sense of humor -- and kids never picked on him," Gruseki said. "He was just totally shocked by how this kid made this decision."
Meantime, school officials working with authorities on a plan to beef up security at the school. Many parents and community members want the school to install metal detectors, after the boy was able to walk through the doors with a loaded handgun.
WWJ Newsradio 950 and CBSDetroit.com are not releasing the boy's name.
