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Friends Say Boy Who Jumped Off Roof of Crescenta Valley High School Was Bullied
The name of the boy who jumped off the roof of a 3-story building during a busy lunch break at Crescenta Valley High School yesterday has been released.
Sheriff's deputies said sophomore Drew Ferraro, 15, took a running start before leaping off a building into the quad yesterday around 12:30 pm, according to the Glendale News-Press. Several students and even some of his friends witnessed the fall, and teachers rushed to cover up the student's body with an umbrella from a nearby table. Parents were asked to pick up their students early yesterday. School will be closed Monday, and grief counselors are available for students.
It's not immediately clear what might have prompted Ferraro to take his own life—investigators say they haven't found any note left behind. District officials have gone out of their way to say repeatedly that bullying didn't play a role in his suicide—although it isn't clear anyone has a good idea what led Ferraro to jump into the busy quad area.
Glendale Unified Schools spokesperson Steven Frasher told CBS Los Angeles, “There’s no indication, whatsoever, that bullying played into this scenario."
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Last week the district held a student assembly on ways to cope with bullies, the News-Press reported. Glendale Unified Supt. Dick Sheehan told the paper, "As a district, we take bullying very seriously."
But friends of Ferraro said he was bullied.
Olin Tellefsen told CBS Los Angeles that he was a close friend of Ferraro's. He said Ferraro was a bright kid, who played football and loved heavy metal. He added that Ferraro was taunted by other male students. Last year, Ferraro was involved in a fight with several boys that upset him, but Tellefsen didn't know how much that fight might have affected him.
“He always seemed like he had something on his mind but it was never…never indicative of anything like this," Tellefsen said at a candlelight vigil last night.
Another friend who actually saw him jump said that the bullying got to Ferraro badly enough that he didn't want to go to school. Meghan Dorosy told CBS Los Angeles, “He definitely was bullied, and he didn’t want to go to school. I know how it feels because I was bullied and I didn’t want to go to school."
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