LIVERPOOL, Pa. (AP) — A 14-year-old boy who killed himself by running into the path of a tractor-trailer said in a note he left behind that he wanted to draw attention to the problem of bullying.
But officials said Tuesday that staff members at Midd-West High School in Middleburg neither witnessed or received any reports of other students teasing freshman Brandon Bitner.
State police in Perry County said Bitner walked several miles from his family's home in Mount Pleasant Mills before killing himself early Friday along U.S. Routes 11 and 15 near Liverpool.
Bitner's mother, Tammy Simpson, says he complained in middle school about being bullied, but not since he entered high school this year, presumably because he feared the teasing would only get worse.
The boy's funeral is Wednesday.
