October• 2018 | 89Peyton James was an amazing boy.
Hehadbeautifulredhair,piercinghazeleyesthat
changedfromgreentoblue,andaquirkysenseof
humour.Helovedanimals,roadtrips,Minecraft,
Legoandchocolateicecream.Hewasmy
Angelface–andnowheismyangelinheaven.He would ask me, “Mum, why can’t
people just be nice?”
Ineverreallyknewhowtoanswer
that question, so I tried to encourage
himtobetheniceone.Ialsotoldhim
allthethingsaparenttellsachild
–thathewasspecial,thathewas
smart,thathewasloved.Butaskids
growolder,wordsofaparentbegin
to pale in comparison to the words of
his peers.
In November 2013, Peyton made
hisirstsuicidalattempt.
Foryears,hehadbeentormented
byseveralboysathisschool.Pey-
ton started to say that his father and
I would be better off without him
andthathedidn’twanttobehere
anymore. At first, we thought he
wasjustoverreacting,butwhenthe
comments didn’t stop, I knew he was
introuble,soItookhimtothelocal
emergency room.
Sadly, ER’s don’t really deal with
mentalhealthissuesandwewerere-
ferred to a therapist. He soon beganPARENTINGHe was born in 2001, was nine weeks
early and weighed only 1.14 kilograms.
He spent 35 days in the neonatal inten-
sive care unit before he was allowed
to come home. While in the hospital,
he spent three weeks on pure oxygen
and was fed through a tube. What
wasn’t known then was that the oxy-
gen and liquid nutrition was causing
a discolouration in the enamel of his
permanent teeth – a problem that we
wouldn’t see for several years.
In Year 2 the teasing began. “Why
don’t you brush your teeth? Why are
your teeth so nasty?”
Although his teeth were healthy,
they were a mottled yellow colour,
kind of like the colour of a popcorn
kernel. He was also picked on be-
cause of his hair, his glasses and the
fact that he was smaller than most of
the other boys. He was seen as weak
and became a target.
As Peyton got older, he often won-
dered why people were so mean
PHOTOS: FACEBOOK, GETTY IMAGESto him.