A teenager in Tennessee killed himself after a classmate posted private, explicit messages between him and another boy on Instagram and Snapchat, outing him as bisexual, said his family, who is calling for an investigation into the “social media bullying.”
Channing Smith, a junior at Coffee County Central High School in Manchester, killed himself Sunday night hours after he found out that his peers had seen sexually explicit Facebook messages between him and another classmate, who is openly gay on social media.
The 16-year-old, who was incredibly social and loved motorcycles, band, and Corvettes, had not openly discussed his sexuality or identified as LGBTQ, according to his girlfriend and brother.
“They were graphic texts and there was no room for Channing to be able to claim it was a misunderstanding,” Joshua Smith, his older brother, told BuzzFeed News. “When he saw the screenshots on social media he called some people around 10 p.m. Sunday night, freaking out. His last posting on Instagram was about people he couldn’t trust.”
Smith’s father found his son’s body after he woke up and noticed the light was still on in his room.
“The light was still on under his door when my dad got up at 4 a.m. so he went in to check on him and there was a gunshot wound to his head and he was cold to the touch,” Joshua Smith said. “He’s still in shock.”
The 38-year-old, who lives in Kentucky with his family, is also still trying to process his younger brother’s death and piece together what drove the high schooler, who “loved being at school and with his friends,” to kill himself.
The senior allegedly got into an argument with another teenager who is close friends with the boy who Channing had messaged with. According to Keylee Duty, a junior at the school, the girl was mad that she didn’t know about the sexting and posted the screenshots to be vindictive.
“She was just doing it to be mean,” said Keylee, who started a group called Justice for Channing and helped organize a memorial for her classmate.
Hailey Meister, who said she had been dating Channing for about a month before he killed himself, told BuzzFeed News the messages were old and posted only “to humiliate him.”
“He didn’t deserve that. He was kind and loving and a very good person,” the 17-year-old said, adding that when the messages hit social media, Channing told her “how bad it made him feel and it was a mistake…he was trying to find himself and people called him bisexual but he never classified specifically as that.”
The teen who posted the screenshots did not respond to BuzzFeed News’ request for comment.
Keylee said that teens had bullied Channing even before the social media attack, calling him names and that “no one liked him” because he sometimes “talked in a girly voice and walked with sass.”
Although he seemed bright and happy, Channing grew up in a “stereotypical small, southern town,” his brother said.
“You could be gay and still like the Confederate flag and shoot pistols. It’s complicated,” Joshua Smith said. “My dad is ultra-conservative, but would never disown him, but him being gay or anything like that would have been a hard conversation.”
Being outed or cast as “gay, queer, or a sissy,” especially in an environment like that, would be devastating for a 16-year-old boy, Smith added.
Joshua Smith said Cooke County District Attorney Craig Northcott is not adequately investigating the teens who allegedly humiliated his little brother on social media. He said that investigators spent only a day on the case, “didn’t confiscate the kids’ phones,” claiming that they didn’t have the technology to “bypass the passcodes.”
“My dad and I had to press the issue and tell them to get a search warrant. They told us that they didn’t have the resources to get into the phones,” he said.
The district attorney has come under fire for saying same-sex couples aren’t entitled to protection against domestic violence and calling Islam an “evil belief system.”
In a statement, Northcott defended his office’s handling of the case, adding that the investigation is ongoing and charges could still be filed:
“I, like the rest of the community, am deeply saddened by the tragic loss of the young life of Channing Smith. I express my heartfelt condolences to his family. My office has encouraged, cooperated in and supported the investigation into the events leading to this death. Ethically, I am prohibited from commenting on an open investigation or prosecution. However, procedurally, no charging decisions have been made by my office nor has the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department asked for a decision since the investigation has not been completed. When all relevant facts are available, my office will advise the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department on what charges, if any, we believe are appropriate to help guide it in that decision. Any report that my office has failed or refused to act is inaccurate and I wanted to clarify this for the sake of the Smith family as they do not need the added burden to the already incomprehensible pain that they are experiencing. I would ask for the everyone to extend their prayers for the family and to respect their privacy as this process moves forward.”
School leaders have also been criticized for not posting a statement honoring Channing or holding an assembly to discuss his death and condemn bullying.
“They haven’t made any mention about him or his death on their website, on Facebook, anywhere,” his brother said. “They haven’t offered counseling to the kids or gathered them to talk about anti-bullying.
The principal told my father that he felt like we would not want anything at our memorial service that says justice for Channing, which was total bullshit,” he added.
In response to the school’s lack of attention, dozens of teens held a “strike” during a homecoming rally on Friday to condemn bullying and pay tribute to Channing.
Using donated materials from art teachers, Coffee High students made spray-painted shirts and bright posters declaring “Justice for Channing.” However, Keylee Duty said that their principal forced the teens to “take the shirts off and put the posters away.”
“We refused. Not only me, but his close friends and people who loved him stood during the assembly holding our posters,” she said. “We believe the school refused to do anything because what happened to Channing involved gay rights.”
Brianna Sacks is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Los Angeles.
Contact Brianna Sacks at [email protected].
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