Kenneth Suttner
courtesy Howard County coroner
This is Kenneth Suttner, he committed bullycide. He was a junior at Glasgow High School, a mere 17 years old. He worked at the local Dairy Queen.
He died on 21 December 2016 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He had committed suicide. It is alleged that he was incessantly bullied by the 21 year-old manager at his place of employment. In stark terms, he was bullied beyond his ability to cope and he decided death was better than being tormented.
His last moments were described in the Columbia Missourian:
Early on the morning of Dec. 21, Kenneth Suttner sat on a snow-covered log, texting and calling his family and friends. He sat there so long, the snow beneath him turned to ice.
He placed his last phone call at 12:39 a.m., put the barrel of a .22 to his head and squeezed the trigger.
Coroner’s inquest – Harley Branham – Courtesy of Columbia Tribune
Howard County (Missouri), convened an inquest into the death of Kenneth Suttner. Testimony from friends, classmates and co-workers painted a picture of his being harassed at work and school with the principal place of harassment being his place of work, the Dairy Queen.
It is alleged, one of his managers at the Dairy Queen, 21 year-0ld Harley Branham was his principal antagonist. The Columbia Daily Tribune describes Branham’s harassment of Kenneth Suttner:
At Suttner’s job, Branham repeatedly ridiculed him and made him do tasks she didn’t have others do, including cleaning the floor by hand while lying on his stomach, former co-workers said.
Kenneth Suttner was teased, made fun of, harassed, bullied and otherwise made to feel inadequate and less of a person than others by his tormentors.
The inquest found Dairy Queen lax in their employee training, and their response was to note that the establishment was an independently owned franchise and they offered their condolences. The Glasgow School District Superintendent, Mike Reynolds noted that bullying does happen, but that it is not a systemic problems. Parents and students painted a different picture than that of Reynolds, with respect to the atmosphere.
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