Posted on 02/21/2015 5:12:36 PM PST by TurboZamboni
An upstate New York teen who became an Internet sensation last fall after petitioning his school to let him appear in a senior yearbook photo with his cat has died after apparently taking his own life, according to police and the teen's parents.
Draven Rodriguez, 17, was a senior at Schenectady High School when his petition for his yearbook photo to feature him and his beloved rescue cat, Mr. Bigglesworth, against a blue and pink laser background went viral. The petition gained thousands of signatures online after the school initially refused.
While the school did ultimately reject the individual photo, Schenectady High School Principal Diane Wilkinson embraced the student's vision and allowed a photo of herself and her rescue dog alongside Rodriguez and his cat to appear on her page in the yearbook, according to TODAY. Rodriguez, Wilkinson and yearbook photographers, Vincent and Fran Giordano of Trinacria Photography, said they hoped the publicity from the photo would raise awareness for rescue animals and their care
(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...
[[I knew of one pregnancy at my HS. I was a sophomore and she was a senior and got married 2 weeks before graduation which was a no-no back then.]]
Are you two still together? :-)
Some of us have more internal grit than others. We all have trials. Some of us handle them better than others.
LOL!!! I’m a grandmother. ;-) I can’t remember the girls name just that she was one of the nicer ones. You know, one that everyone liked.
As if people can't tell some stranger to @#_^&#$_(* and then block them from their FB or ignore them until they get tired of talking to themselves. Kids take social networking too seriously. Hate to think what this world will be in a short 5 years with no one pulling their noses out of their iphones, etc. Or, at 17, he'd be graduated from HS and out of the house in 3-4 months if that were the problems. Bottom line, suicide is selfish. All that fuss over the cat and now he isn't around to make sure it doesn't got back to the pound. Sounds like it was more about himself than the cat.
I knew of one teen shooting himself over his home situation. If he'd just waited, he'd graduate and been out of the house in a matter of months. But that's the only teen suicide I'd heard of.
I am guessing here.
The kid had problems obviously. But somewhere along the line EVERYONE in his sphere of influence bent over backward to accomodate the kid and cater to his outbursts. Posing with your cat is OK but to ‘convince’ (most likely through a temper tantrum) the school to allow him to take his yearbook picture with a cat should have raised some alarms.
I have a feeling this will be repeated with all the transgendered BS the schools are promoting right now. rather than face the ‘teens’ and tell them the facts of life the entire education complex is catering to their madness.
One thing is for sure, online forums are not for overly sensitive people.
You can’t take jerks personally. Generally, that sort are nasty to a lot of people and it gets around.
Even here on FR where we (ostensibly) share a common interest, our political philosophy, I have been ripped a new one a few times. Some people just take anyone that disagrees with them as a personal insult. Oh well.
I gotta think there is more to this story.
He got sucked into the “bullying” activist crowd, who are hardcore homosexuals. A bad crowd to end up with, to say the least.
The sad truth is that the teen aged brain can leave one in a dark whole that is overwhelmingly driven by depression. Unfortunately, the teen aged brain is impulsive and impatient so a long term solution (suicide) for a short term problem (deep emotional pain) becomes attractive.
It is a tragedy
“God found me.”
God never lost you.
What you say is true. I was speaking, of course, from my perspective.
Back when I was in high school I thought of it once in awhile. Never got close to actually doing anything, but...
Two kids in my high school killed themselves (late 70’s). They were in the druggie crowd. Then in college, there was a suicide every year that I was there! Tough and selective school, and I don’t know, but I always felt that it was straight A high-school kids getting their first poor grades, and perhaps pressure from parents too.
My old-man would tell his friends “Well he’s getting B’s and C’s, but that would be A’s and B’s at any other school!” (He was correct!)
It is sad that so many teens feel so much drama and trauma. My 17-year old daughter was pretty funny, just the another night talking about some poetry thing at school. “And all these poems about breaking up, and the love of my life. What a bunch of crap. Get over it - you’re 17! You’ll have another sluty girlfriend before you know it!”
“I was bullied, had no brothers to back me up...”
Shazam!!! Wow! that brings back memories. I didn’t have any brothers to back me up either when being bullied. Then I got clever, and when bullies thought they were going to have fun kicking my butt I informed them that my bigger brother was on his way over to meet me... “and as a matter of fact, when I tell him you were planning to beat me up, he’s gonna beat YOU up!” Then they’d leave. Lol
My bullies knew I was an only child.
Depression in some forms is intensely painful (think anxiety attack).
Sad. RIP.
The attention seeking kid ended up committing suicide? If you know anything about teenagers this is no surprise.
I think that's why the "Footprints" poem is so popular. When we are deep in our trials, we think God has left us, when in fact, He is carrying us. Perspective is everything.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.