Tyrone Unsworth ‘cried his eyes out’ to friend the day before he took his own life
A friend of Tyrone Unsworth has come forward and revealed that the 13-year-old felt as though he couldn’t turn to his teachers for support the day before he tragically took his own life.
Tyrone was a Year 7 student at Aspley State high school in Brisbane. On November 22, he killed himself, following years of bullying because of his perceived sexuality.
At the time, his mother told the Courier Mail that “he was a really feminine male, he loved fashion, he loved make-up, and the boys always picked on him, calling him gay-boy, faggot, fairy; it was a constant thing from Year 5.”
It has since emerged that the day before Tyrone’s death, he confided in a friend about the extent of the bullying, and how he didn’t feel as though his complaints would be taken seriously by his school.
Friend Gypsie-Lee Edwards Kennard told ABC News that Tyrone broke down during a conversation with her on a fishing trip the day before he died.
“He was an absolute mess, crying his eyes out and telling me everyone wanted him dead. I said, ‘Tyrone, what do you mean everyone wants you dead?’,” she revealed.
“He said, ‘The kids at school keep telling me to go kill myself’, and I was obviously gobsmacked.
“[The other students] did call him nasty names, like faggot and fairy. He loved girly things, he’d chosen dresses for me and his mum to wear, he’d asked to use make-up.
“Kids obviously thought because he was like that he could be a target for their bullying.”
Ms Edwards Kennard added that she begged Tyrone to seek help from the staff at his school, but she said that he didn’t believe he would be supported.
“I said, ‘You need to speak to someone [at the school]’ and he said, ‘They don’t care’,” she explained.
“He just felt like no one wanted him around and he didn’t belong,” she said.
“It’s really hard to hear that from a child who’s only 13 years old.”
She added: “I wish that he could have expressed the feelings that he had and I don’t know why he couldn’t, and this one time that he did to me, afterwards he had to pretend everything was fine.”
At the time of Tyrone’s death, Aspley State principal Jacquita Miller told the Courier Mail that the school had failed to take action because Tyrone’s bullying had gone unreported.
“We had no reports of the bullying, we really try to work with families to resolve these complex issues. I’m just so sorry and sad that we didn’t have the opportunity to help this young man,” she said.
Meanwhile, Tyrone’s grieving family were left distraught after anonymous trolls began targeting them with fake profiles using his pictures in the immediate aftermath of his death.