Tempest Kayne Smith
September 16, 1988 – February 20, 2001
Join us in proposing February 20th as Tempest Smith Day.
Tempest Smith was 12 years old when she committed suicide, due to bullying and persecution, on the 20th February 2001. The behavior she was subjected to began when she was in the second grade and increased with intensity until Tempest could no longer dispel the torment through nonviolent reaction. She left written words indicating her decision.
A Detroit, Michigan schoolgirl, Tempest was continually harassed by her classmates, including bombardment with Christian hymns to ridicule her Wiccan beliefs.
Tempest hung herself on February 20, 2001, with her own leopard-print scarf.
In September 2002, after more than a year of meditation and inner contemplation, Tempest’s mother Denessa Smith, stepped out into the community with a mission and a message. In January 2003, the Tempest Smith Foundation legally began. The debut of TSF was at the Tempest Smith Memorial Ritual held at ConVocation. The ritual was performed by several prominent figures of the Pagan community to honor Tempest, ensuring that her convictions would not go unnoticed.
No parent should have to find their child dead because of Christian harassment. No teenager should have to face religious discrimination and hatred so great that suicide seems to be the only option.
Death is not extinguishing the light; it is putting out the lamp because dawn has come.
~ Rabindranath Tagore
The majority of this text is from http://teenwitch.com/religiousfreedom/tempestsmith.html, along with the image of Tempest.
It’s sad that a young girl killed herself because of religious harassment. And it’s not just Christians against Pagan/Wiccans, it’s any religion. No one should have to go through that.
Perhaps we should ALL take a stand and learn to say ‘Enough’, before something like this happens.
Then again, that is just my opinion.
As a professing Christian, I would like to apologize for what happened…
This should never have happened. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we should attack others (verbally or otherwise) because they believe something different.
We are called to help them and show them the way through compassion and faith, not by bullying them until something horrible like this happens.
While I do not personally believe the same way you do, I could never bring myself to to torment another human being in such a way (or at all for that matter) as to cause them to do something this drastic.
I think you’ll find that most true Christians are not like the rather callous individuals that were so heartless towards this little girl. We get a lot of flack for our beliefs similar to the way that the Wiccan faith does… we are now the butt of many a joke and even now I get harassed at college because I’m a Christian…
why can’t everyone else just be tolerant of our beliefs like we are of theirs? In my opinion the people that did this to her broke one of their own rules “thou shalt not kill” they are directly responsible for her suicide in my opinion