Sammy Teusch was a smart, funny, loving boy who loved fishing, robots and football.
He studied hard, spent time with his family and got along well with his classmates in Florida.
In November 2022, his family moved to Greenfield, in central Indiana, and suddenly the boy’s life became hell.
Students at Weston Primary School soon began bullying the newcomer. The taunting and violence continued at Greenfield Intermediate.
He begged teachers for help, but to no avail.
After months of violence and brutality, he committed suicide in May; his suffocated body was discovered at home by his 13-year-old brother.
Now a lawsuit filed by the parents has laid bare the extent of the ten-year-old’s unimaginable suffering – with photos of his injuries.
The shocking dossier also includes a text message from a bully who appears to confess to pushing Sammy to commit suicide and a devastating example of how the child was taunted even after his death.
Sam and Nicci Teusch have accused the school district of failing to act and showing “callous indifference” toward Sammy, who endured months of misery despite their frantic pleas for help.
Sammy Teusch, 10, tragically committed suicide on May 5 after suffering years of abuse
Grieving father Sam Teusch sued the Indiana school district this week for failing to prevent bullies from tormenting their son
Grieving father Sam told DailyMail.com that the wrongful death lawsuit, filed this week in the Hancock County Circuit Court, would make schools safer by ensuring teachers crack down on bullies.
“Their neglect and inability to accept responsibility for their actions cannot be condoned,” Sam said.
“I’ve been to school twenty or more times for this.”
Greenfield-Central Community School Corporation declined to comment on the 14-page complaint against the district and its administrators.
It is claimed that Sammy was attacked and mocked about everything from his ‘beaver teeth’ to his general appearance, which was grotesquely compared to that of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.
Shockingly, at one point a teacher reportedly joined in the mockery, saying that the boy did indeed look like the Milwaukee psychopath.
In one case, a classmate allegedly strangled Sammy until he “saw stars.”
Another hit him so hard with an iPad that Sammy was left with a black eye and broken glasses, the complaint said.
On another occasion, a gang of students allegedly chased him through the school and locked him in a bathroom.
Perhaps the most hurtful bullying behavior cited in the lawsuit came from a student who simply followed Sammy around the school and urged him to commit suicide.
The lawsuit includes photos of injuries Sammy suffered at the hands of bullies
According to the family, they contacted their son’s school twenty times about the bullying
Sammy complained to teachers but was largely ignored, the complaint alleges.
He resorted to turning his desk around in frustration to get the staff’s attention, but this led to him being sent away for disrupting class.
Sam told DailyMail.com that his son “had the biggest heart and the best smile.”
“That made him an easy target and easy for school officials to dismiss and ignore him,” he said.
‘We can’t let the world be like this.’
When Sammy alerted his parents, Sam and Nicci urged teachers to get involved and protect the boy, the lawsuit said.
About 20 warnings were filed with GIS director Bronson Curtis and others, but to no avail.
The lawsuit says teachers took a “cavalier” attitude toward Sammy’s well-being and blamed the victim, not his tormentors.
The filing accused staff of even saying the boy was being bullied because of his own “mental issues.”
At one point, the irritated youth told his father, “They’re not listening to me, Dad.”
The last straw, it seems, were phone calls from a bully known in the lawsuits as NT.
Tributes poured in for the 10-year-old following his tragic suicide as the community rallied behind the Teusches
The bullying started in 2022 when Sammy was in primary school and had followed him to Greenfield Intermediate School
School Superintendent Dr. Harold Olin, left, and director Branson Curtis, right. The school previously said the family had not filed a bullying report
On Saturday, May 4, the classmate allegedly threatened Sammy with even more violence if they were back in class on Monday.
“NT was never given the opportunity to carry out his threats,” the complaint states, as he committed suicide shortly before noon on Sunday, May 5.
When Sammy’s anguished parents and paramedics discovered his lifeless body, they tried to get his young heart beating again, but couldn’t.
Even as the community rallied behind the Teusches and hundreds of people showed up for the boy’s funeral on May 14, including a memorial motorcycle procession, the harassment continued.
One of the bullies, a girl known as TN, is said to have taken pictures of Sammy’s open casket before she was seen laughing at her phone.
The suit calls this a “blood-curdling moment reminiscent of the movie Children of the Corn.”
NT, the tormentor accused of instigating Sammy’s suicide, acknowledged in a remorseful text message that it was “all my fault for bullying him,” the papers show.
The Teusches’ attorney, Brian Grossman, says school officials are to blame for “callously rejecting and ignoring Sammy’s pleas for protection for months” and failing to intervene.
His parents Sam and Nicci say he was physically and emotionally bullied at school, with Sammy recently beaten up on a school bus
The lawsuit shows how one of Sammy’s tormentors acknowledged that his death was ‘completely my fault because I bullied him’
The family is seeking a jury trial, damages and payment of their legal fees.
“This lawsuit is about more than holding the Greenfield School Corporation accountable,” Grossman said.
“It’s about making sure that no child ever experiences what Sammy went through – and that no family experiences again the heartbreak that the Teusch family can now never escape.”
Greenfield police launched an investigation into the bullying in the days after the fourth-grader’s death.
They discovered that Sammy suffered from ‘some bullying behavior’, both in and out of school.
But they ended the investigation on May 31 without filing charges against anyone.
Deputy Police Chief Charles McMichael said at the time that there was “no evidence” that teachers were negligent.
According to the lawsuit, one of Sammy’s bullies was even seen laughing after taking a photo of his open funeral casket.
Solemn footage captured the moment hundreds of motorcycles rode side by side as they paid their respects at the funeral of Sammy Teusch, 10.
The school district’s superintendent, Dr. Harold Olin, has disputed the Teusches’ claims, saying no bullying report was ever filed by Sammy or his parents.
According to data from the United Educators Association, Sammy is just one of about 20 American children who commit suicide each year after classroom bullying.
The U.S. Department of Education warns that about a quarter of students are bullied on a regular basis.
These numbers are getting worse, thanks to a youth mental health crisis caused in part by peer pressure and 24-hour social media.
The Megan Meier Foundation, a Missouri-based nonprofit, says children who have been bullied or cyberbullied are twice as likely to try to take their own lives as others.
The Teusches have been launched Sammy’s Tree Foundationa nonprofit organization that helps victims of childhood bullying report their tormentors and talk about problems in the classroom.
“Our main goal is to let everyone know that suicide is currently the second leading cause of death in children,” says Sam.
‘It’s something I didn’t know because we’re not allowed to talk about it. There is a stigma: you are not even allowed to say the word.’