Heartbroken dad sheds tears as he hits out at ‘monsters’ who drove his son to suicide
Grieving dad Daniel Fitzpatrick posted a video online condemning the boys who violently bullied his son Danny, 13, who was found dead on Thursday
THE distraught father of a teenager who took his own life has taken to social media to slam the “monsters” who tormented his son at school.
Daniel Fitzpatrick, 45, posted a video on his Facebook page and said: “My son’s stories are out there for the world to see, and for the world to know the pain that he went through.”
He added: “I miss my son very much. No parent should have to bury their child. No child should have to go through what my son went through.”
His 13-year-old son Danny, who “didn’t have a mean bone in his body”, explaining how bad things had become for him at school.
He wrote: “At first it was good. I had lots of friends, good grades, great life but I moved and [when I came back] it was different.
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“My old friends changed, they didn’t talk to me, they didn’t even like me.”
He explained that the bullying became progressively worse and culminated in a fight during which he broke one of his fingers.
However, his ordeal at the hands of several boys at Holy Angels Catholic School in New York, USA, continued and he criticised the teachers who “didn’t do ANYTHING”.
Danny’s father reveals that he and his son went to the school’s headmaster who said that the boy would be “fine”, that he needed to “try harder” and that “these things will pass”.
In the video, grieving dad Daniel said: “Children can be such horrible creatures.”
He added: “They ain’t creatures – they’re monsters, disgusting little monsters.
“To the parents of the boys that tormented my son: All I have to say is I hope you never, never have to feel what my family is going through right now.
“You get to hold your children every night and day for the rest of your lives and their natural lives. I don’t get that anymore.
"Your little monsters took that from me and my wife and his sisters.”
The Fitzgerald family are planning to hold a service for their son on Monday and have set up a .
Initially they aimed to raise $10,000 but donations have flooded in with the total now standing at over $60,000.
Tragic Danny's family have also hit out at his school after they sent the Administration for Children’s Services to their home.
“They called ACS on us,” mum Maureen said of administrators at the Bay Ridge school.
“Danny told us they [administrators] were asking questions: ‘Do Mom and Dad drink? Do they feed you? Do they have clothes in the house?’ ” the mum said.
“Next thing you know, 7:30 at night, I have an ACS officer at my door, and my son told him, ‘I just want a friend.’”
The parents agreed to drug testing and to a thorough investigation, which ultimately turned up nothing, they said.
When the parents met with Principal Rosemarie McGoldrick, they were told that the bullying was just a phase and would pass.
The outraged parents arranged for him to start at another school in the fall, but the bullying continued, they said.
In one attack, Danny had his finger broken by a gang of bullies.
Instead of coming to Danny’s aid, administrators put all the boys in a room to ask what happened.
“How do you conduct an interview with the victim and his attacker in the same room?” the mum asked.
“If he said what happened, it would come back to him tenfold.”
A spokeswoman for the Brooklyn/Queens Diocese said: “The principal, teachers, and staff of Holy Angels Catholic Academy are heartbroken over the loss of Danny Fitzpatrick.
“We take the issue of bullying very seriously and address every incident that is brought to our attention.”
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