Who Is Kevin Reese? Sad New Details About The Boy Who Committed Suicide After Being Bullied
The tragic story behind a little boy gone too soon.
Instagram In the past five or so years a larger conversation about bullying has taken the mainstage. With the advent of social media and with kids of younger and even younger ages getting access to smartphones, tablets, and other devices, it has become trickier than ever before. How can parents be expected to monitor every single social interaction their children have? They can't! But they also need to be aware of when their child is in distress and hiding it because of social interactions and the bullying that comes from it.
In January of 2019, a serious tragedy occurred. Kevin Reese Jr, a happy, silly, 10-year-old boy took his own life. The reason? He could no longer put up with the bullying that he was experiencing at school. Who was Kevin Reese, and what could his school have done to help intervene and prevent this horrific event from unfolding before it did? We break it all down.
1. Who Was Kevin Reese?
Kevin Reese Jr. was a little brother, he was a son, and at 10-years-old, he was a little boy from Texas who should have felt like the entire world was his oyster. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Like so many other children in this country and beyond, Kevin experienced intense bullying at school. This wasn't your average name-calling, either. For most of the school year, Kevin was systematically attacked.
The little bit, who his mother described as "goofy," the kid with the passion for painting, the kid who could've been anything he wanted to be, will now never get a chance to be anything, other than a memory and a cautionary tale for school administrators and the parents of young children.
2. The Day He Died
According to KTRK, Kevin Reese died by suicide. That's right, a 10-year-old took his own life. The boy ended his journey at his Houston-based home on January 21st of 2019. Kevin's older sister, 13, walked with him from the bus back home after the school day was over. Kevin's stepfather was driving home, and his mother was out of town.
Crystal Smith, Kevin's mom, will never recover from getting the phone call from her daughter that changed her life forever. “She was just screaming on the phone, and I didn’t understand and she screamed, ‘Kevin,'” she said. His sister found Kevin, nonresponsive, at the floor of his closet, have taken his own life through hanging.
3. The Bullying
Kevin had been honest with his mother about the difficulties that he was facing at school, but the truth of the matter was she had no idea just how far it had gone nor did she know that incredible impact it was having on her sensitive and impressionable young son.
“I just thought he was handling the situations. They wrote on his tablet to kill yourself, ‘You don’t belong here,'” Crystal, his mother, told reporters for KTRK. The bullying didn't end with verbal jibes and cruelly written barbs either. “When it got physical back in November, he came home crying because he didn’t fight back and one of the boys punched him several times coming from recess.”
4. His Mother Taking Action
When it seemed like Kevin was out of his depth and that the bullying was escalating, the last thing Crystal wanted to do was rest on her laurels. She wanted to make a change and help make Kevin's time at school pleasant, or at the very least, a time he could endure.
To that end, she contacted Kevin's school, just like any worried mother might do should their child be coming home with heartrending tales like these. KTRK actually managed to get a copy of the message that was left on the grieving mother's voicemail in response to her concerns. The official on the phone claimed that the student accused of punching Reese denied the actual physical altercation, but did admit that some "words had been exchanged."
5. What The School Says
Someone wasn't doing their due diligence when it came to Kevin's welfare and it certainly wasn't Crystal. The Cy-Fair Independent School District, where Kevin attended, told KTRK there were “no allegations or evidence of bullying were reported to a school administrator or via the Cy-fair Tipline associated with this student’s death.”
However, when the reporters were able to refute this with evidence of the voicemail left for Crystal, they did eventually admit to calling her about an incident that took place in November. The person responsible for making that call has been transferred, but the school has made no other statements regarding Kevin.
Rebecca Jane Stokes is a writer living in Brooklyn, New York with her cats, Batman and Margot. Her work focuses on relationships, pop culture and news. For more of her work, check out her Tumblr.