Family struggles with young boy’s death

SOPHIA, W.Va. — A Raleigh County family is struggling to understand what would cause a nine-year-old boy get to the point of taking his own life.

Jackson Grubb was found dead at home Saturday. He hanged himself with a belt.

Both Jackson’s grandmother, Betsy Baber, and uncle, Shane Baber, believed he was being bullied but they disagree if that alone caused him to take the steps that he did.

Jack Grubb's grandmother says he was a happy boy who enjoyed life.
Jack Grubb’s grandmother says he was a happy boy who enjoyed life.

“I do believe bullying did play a part in it but I don’t believe it was the primary cause,” Shane Baber said Tuesday on MetroNews “Talkline.” “I want to believe that this boy went in there to try to scare his grandmother and have her find him. Not find him dead but find him struggling because I believe he was struggling inside.”

Betsy, who has been raising ‘Jack” and his siblings, agrees with her son that Jack didn’t mean to take his own life.

“Just speaking from my heart—I believe that he just couldn’t take nothing no more. He had reached that point. But he didn’t think, I don’t believe, that it was going to go that way,” she said.

Jack, an introvert by nature, had become even more withdrawn in recent weeks, according to his grandmother. Betsy said she tried many ways to draw it out of him but couldn’t. The family has learned more about the bullying since Jack’s death.

“They were bullying him and they were picking on him. They were saying things to him. They were touching him and that led my grandson to do the things that he did,” Betsy said.

Both Betsy and her son are concerned about other kids in the Sophia area because they have very few places to turn when they are having problems.

“Sophia needs to have an outlet for these children or we’re going to lose more children,” Shane said.

Jack was a third grade student at Sophia Soak Creek Elementary.

Anyone interested in helping the family can contact Midway Pentecostal Church of God, Care of Pastor Sam Bell at Post Office Box 223, Midway, WV, 25878.





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