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10-year-old Akron boy's suicide prompts questions; family hopes his death will spur help for other troubled youths

Akron Beacon Journal - 6/2/2018

June 02--Details...

To get help ...

-- National Suicide Prevention hotline: 800-273-8255

-- ADM Crisis Line: 330-434-9144

-- Portage Path Behavioral Health'sPsychiatric Emergency Services line: 330-762-6110.

-- National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Information Helpline: 800-950-NAMI

-- NAMI Summit County: 330-252-1188 (not a crisis line)

To help the family: Razy Sellars' family has a GoFundMe page to raise money to help with his funeral expenses. The link is: www.gofundme.com/5m3ia8w. Memorials also can be made via the Redmon Funeral Home in Stow. Redmon's website is www.redmonfuneralhome.com and the phone number is 330-688-6631.

When Razy Sellars' family returned home from his brothers' baseball game on a recent night, they found Legos and other toys strewn throughout their Akron home.

They saw a potted flower intended for 10-year-old Razy's teacher sitting on the counter with all of the blooms cut off.

A 14-year-old brother searched for Razy, who had stayed home because he didn't want to go to the game. What the teen discovered sent him running downstairs, screaming.

Razy was dead, hanging in his brother's bedroom closet.

Razy's suicide last week has left the family with many questions.

Why would a boy so young take his own life?

Why didn't anyone -- school officials, police, children services or the family itself -- see signs that this might happen and help him?

Razy's family agreed to share his story with the Beacon Journal/Ohio.com in the hopes that it might help other young people -- and prompt local officials to do more to assist troubled youths.

"I want a Razy movement," said Ashley Fay Johnson, 31, Razy's mother, who cried repeatedly during a recent two-hour interview, surrounded by family members quick to comfort her.

His death capped a school year that saw a rash of suicides by young people in the Akron-Canton area. The Summit County Medical Examiner's Office has investigated six suicides of children under 18 so far this year. Razy was the youngest.

The Stark County coroner has handled double that number in the past school year, prompting federal public health officials to get involved.

Suicides involving people as young as Razy are rare but they do happen. National statistics show the suicide rate of those between 10 and 14 years old is less than 2.5 per 100,000 people.

Suicide history

Razy's death wasn't his family's first experience with suicide.

Charles Fay, Razy's maternal grandfather, shot himself in the head May 12, 1992.

He did so while standing 4 feet from Dolores Fay, Ashley's mother. Ashley and her two brothers were upstairs when the shooting happened.

"I don't know why," Dolores Fay said. "Frustration? A feeling of, 'I can't go on?'

"We've always been a dysfunctional family," she continued. "Everybody has done their best for the children."

The family moved around a lot over the years, although it always remained in the Akron area.

Ashley Fay met Andrew Sellars in 2002. They never married, but had Razy and his two brothers.

Andrew and Razy were close. Andrew took Razy to Head Start and helped him with his preschool assignments. The father had the time because he was unemployed, while Ashley was working.

Ashley suspects Andrew was depressed because he didn't have a job, the holidays were approaching and bills were piling up. He hanged himself on Dec. 4, 2011. Ashley found him.

Chris Sellars, Andrew's mother and Razy's paternal grandmother, said her son had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and was bipolar, but didn't always take his medication. He experimented with drugs and sometimes went to counseling.

"He loved Ashley and the boys with all of his heart," Andrew's mother said.

Ashley and her sons went through counseling off and on. Though she initially told the boys their father's heart had stopped, she eventually followed a counselor's advise and told them the whole story about how he died.

Several years after his father's death, Razy was looking at a photo collage his father had made with pictures of him when he noticed a handwritten message in the corner: "When you read this, I'm probably going to be dead."

Razy's spiral

Razy struggled during his fourth-grade year at Akron's Sam Salem elementary, the school where he started the 2017-18 school year.

He got into trouble for fighting and using bad language and received several in- and out-of-school suspensions, according to his family.

His problems culminated with a confrontation with the principal in mid-April -- his family says he shouted at her and used profanity. He received a 10-day suspension and was reassigned for the remainder of the school year to SOAR, an alternative program for students with behavioral issues.

Razy's family said he hated his new school. Razy sometimes would lay outside his mother's bedroom in the morning, sobbing and saying he didn't want to go.

Ashley reached out to a caseworker at Summit County Children Services who had previously been involved with the family and asked how to help Razy. The caseworker suggested she get him into counseling.

Ashley wasn't able to get an appointment for Razy with a therapist until late June.

Frustrated, she told Razy if he didn't want to go to school, he didn't have to go.

That changed when the family received a truancy notice. Razy reluctantly returned to SOAR for the four days leading up to his death.

When Razy got home the afternoon of May 24, he told his mother that he almost got into a fight at school. Ashley didn't have time to talk to him about the fight because she had to pick his 13- and 14-year-old brothers up from school. She left him playing Fortnite, his favorite video game.

When it was time to leave for his older brothers' baseball game later that afternoon, Razy didn't want to go. Thinking he just wanted to play his favorite game, Ashley put the PlayStation 4 away. Razy still said he wanted to stay home.

The family returned about 9 p.m. and found the house in disarray -- and Razy dead.

His 14-year-old brother took Razy's body down with the help of his grandmother, Dolores Fay. He wanted to spare his mother this task, knowing she had done the same thing with his father six years earlier.

Seeking answers

Razy didn't write a note, leaving his family to wonder what happened.

Razy's family suspects he may have been acting out because he was being bullied at school, an assertion they say has been bolstered by things they've heard since his death.

Dolores Fay, Razy's grandmother, posted an angry message on Facebook inviting Sam Salem elementary and SOAR staff, the Akron superintendent, Akron police and Children Services caseworkers to his funeral.

"You let my grandson be bullied and, when he reacted, suspended him and put him in a different school," she wrote. "He hanged himself tonight. Guess he doesn't need your help anymore."

The message was shared more than 300 times by people expressing condolences and a frustration with bullying.

School officials, however, say they have no record of Razy or his family reporting a bullying incident. They declined to discuss Razy's history with the district, citing privacy issues.

After Razy's death, the district sent crisis teams to talk to students, parents and staff at the schools Razy and his brothers have attended.

"As a district, I know we are incredibly sad about the student's passing," said Dan Rambler, director of student services.

Rambler said the district takes bullying seriously, including having school-specific programs for relationship-building, investigating student complaints on bully report forms and mediating disputes between students. He said additional steps are being considered, including having social workers in schools.

Razy's family said his death -- along with the other recent suicides -- highlight a need for more to be done.

"Something has to be done by somebody," Fay said.

Ashley Johnson, who recently married, has a 4-year-old son and is pregnant with her fifth child, is worried about her older sons. Several mean-spirited messages on Snapchat and Twitter have suggested Razy's older brothers should kill themselves, too.

The family attended a group counseling session Wednesday.

Razy's calling hours and funeral were Thursday evening, a week after his death. He will be cremated, with his urn buried in his father's grave site at Greenlawn Cemetery, the resting place the family thought was most appropriate.

"They used to always be together," Razy's 13-year-old brother said.

Stephanie Warsmith can be reached at 330-996-3705, swarsmith@thebeaconjournal.com and on Twitter: @swarsmithabj.

"You let my grandson be bullied and, when he reacted, suspended him and put him in a different school. He hanged himself tonight. Guess he doesn't need your help anymore."

Dolores Fay, Razy's grandmother

posted on Facebook inviting Sam Salem elementary and SOAR staff,

the Akron superintendent, Akron police and Children Services caseworkers to his funeral

Resources for suicide awareness and prevention. Page A8

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(c)2018 the Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio)

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