Extreme bullying

This week there are two high-profile stories about gay youth driven to suicide by the actions of others - one (Asher Brown) by bullying and the other (Tyler Clementi) by an invasion of privacy (Asher shot himself and Tyler jumped off the George Washington bridge).  I'm rather speechless - are these students still so isolated and still so targeted?  Texas I can almost understand, but New Jersey???  It makes the dad's rant at students who bullied his daughter (in Florida) seem much more reasonable - if this is how hopeless the kids end up feeling.

ADDENDUM

Turns out there were really 4 recent suicides: 15-year old Billy Lucas shot himself in Indiana and 13-year old Seth Walsh hung himself in California, both in September, after merciless bullying.  The conversations also included Phoebe Prince, who hung herself in Massachusetts back in January after bullying at her school (though she was on depression medication and had attempted suicide at least once before).

Here is what my Dear Husband has to say about this: "We have certainly become a nation of pussies.  There was bullying when we were young and you never heard about people killing themselves."  I have to admit, I was shocked by this reaction.  No sympathy for the victims, no condemnation for the cruelty of the bullies.  "Suck it up" was his advice.