PS 67 in the Bronx where the murder took place
Since the beginning of the school year, 18-year-old student Abel Cedeno was mocked with racial and homophobic slurs in his school in The Bronx, N.Y. He responded by buying a switchblade that he hid in his pocket, according to The New York Times.
On Wednesday, Sept. 27, he had had enough.
According to reports, during a history class, two classmates hit him with pieces of pencil and balled up paper. He went to the bathroom, but when he came back, the torment continued.
Police say that Cedeno stood up, turned and said something to one of the students who had been tormenting him. That student got up and punched Cedeno. Cedeno then pulled out his knife and killed the 15-year-old, police say.
Another student, who didn’t realize his friend had been stabbed intervened and Cedeno stabbed him as well. That student survived.
Other students in the class said the teacher and teacher’s aide stood by and did nothing.
Earlier in the year, Cedeno’s mother had asked administrators to intervene in the bullying, but they did nothing. They said Cedeno hadn’t complained himself.
In some schools, bullying is still not taken seriously. “Boys will be boys” is what a principal in East Texas told a mother recently as recounted in a Dallas Voice story. But stopping bullying may not only save lives of those bullied. It may save the life of the bully as well.
Cedeno is charged with murder, attempted murder and manslaughter.
