'They're monsters,' emotional dad says of kids who bullied his son

By Mira Wassef
Staten Island Advance
August 13, 2016

http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2016/08/theyre_monsters_says_emotional.html

Daniel Fitzpatrick, 13, of West Brighton committed suicide on Thursday after constant bullying at Holy Angels Catholic Academy in Brooklyn

Daniel Fitzpatrick posted an 18-minute video thanking family supports and addressing his son's suicide.

Before committing suicide, Daniel Fitzpatrick, 13, of West Brighton, penned a letter about how he was being bullied at Holy Angels Catholic Academy in Brooklyn.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The father of the 13-year-old West Brighton boy who committed suicide posted an emotional video where he calls the kids who bullied his son "monsters."

"They're monsters.. disgusting little monsters," Daniel Fitzpatrick says in the nearly 20 minute Facebook video. "I hope the memory of what you've done to my son is burned in your brain for the rest of your life and you suffer as much as he has suffered."

"Danny was a kind, gentle, little soul," he said. "He didn't have a mean bone in his body."

On Thursday, the younger Daniel Fitzpatrick hanged himself in the attic of his Davis Avenue home, his family told the Daily News. Daniel's older sister found him dead around 5:30 p.m., the report said.

In a letter penned last month, Daniel detailed his struggle with bullying at the Holy Angels Catholic Academy in Brooklyn.

In the letter, he says he was injured after he was forced to defend himself when a couple of kids picked a fight.

"I ended up fighting .... and got a fractured pinkie," Daniel wrote.

Even after the scuffle, the kids, one a former friend, kept bullying him, and the school ignored his complaints, the teen wrote.

"They didn't do ANYTHING!" he said in the letter.

In the video, Fitzpatrick says he took his son to see the principal, and was told by school officials "He'll be fine"..." He's in counseling"... "You have to try harder Danny"... "Children can be horrible creatures," the dad says in the tearful video.

The teen was in counseling and seeing the school's guidance counselor regularly, according to a spokeswoman for the Brooklyn Archdiocese.

His complaints, she said, were not ignored and the staff feels they did everything they could to help him.

"Every teacher and principal are heartbroken over this," the spokeswoman said. "They loved and cared about Daniel."

In a letter sent to parents at Holy Angels Catholic Academy, the principal, Rosemarie McGoldrick, said bullying incidents are treated "thoughtfully and thoroughly."

"I continue to pray for Daniel and for his family as they cope with this unimaginable loss," McGoldrick says in the letter. 

However, Daniel's dad wishes the parents of the kids who tormented his son never have to feel what he's feeling, and says he can't hold his son, but they get to hold their children every day and every night.

"I'm heartbroken," he says in the video. "I'm wearing his shoes so I know what it's like, so I can at least try to feel what he felt."

"I miss my son," he continued. "I just want to hear him say 'good morning dad' one more time and I can say 'good morning, I love you,' which would I say every day."

A GoFundMe page has been set up in Daniel's memory, seeking to give him "a proper memorial, as well as shine a bright light on the bullying that killed him."