News: Guilty of being ginger

Ginger schoolboy, 14, who dyed his hair brown 'in a bid to stop being bullied' is found hanged in his bedroom by his father

• Simon Walters was discovered dead by father Nigel, 42, in the early hours
• Father would usually text him during a shift but didn't have time that night
• Simon was a pupil at Heath Park School in Wolverhampton, West Midlands
• Headteacher admits school community is still in shock one year after death

A 14-year-old boy who dyed his hair brown in an effort to stop bullies attacking him for being ginger was found hanged by his father, an inquest has heard.

Simon Walters - who was a pupil at Heath Park School in Wolverhampton, West Midlands - was discovered dead in his bedroom by his 42-year-old father Nigel, with whom he lived alone.

Mr Walters last saw his son alive before leaving for work at 8pm, and said he would always text him during a shift to say he loved him - but on that night he was too busy and never sent the message.

Speaking at the hearing at Smethwick Council House yesterday, Mr Walters described the moment he found his son dead after returning home from a night shift at 4.15am on a day in October last year.

Mr Walters said: ‘Simon’s music was blaring and his lights were still on so I went upstairs to tell him to go to bed. He was hanging. I just ran downstairs screaming - I could not believe it. I was in shock.’

Opinion:
I think that this is a horrible news, bulling should be made illegal to get rid of it. There are a lot of teenagers who have been bullied and then they commit suicide. Now because of  the social networks, people judge  people easily and they have more reasons for bullying someone. A lot of adolescents make a second account on Instagram or in We Heart It showing sad images of themselves doing self harm, pictures with hanged people, anorexic girls, etc. I think the society has the fault because they criticize everything we do or not. There's a case (Amanda Todd) that a girl made a video before commiting suicide, explaining the reasons why she did it. A lot of people do these things to call the attention but other people do it to express themselves and explain their story to the world. It's sad but it's true and this happens more than we think that it happens, include your closers friends. More than  25 per cent of Spanish students have been bullied and also adults in work. It's such a shame  because  that we are meant to be a clever generation but we are increasingly more dumb.