A San Diego mother is grieving the loss of her 14-year-old son, who she said took his own life after he was bullied for being gay.
Eunice Rios shared her grief in a TikTok post last month, holding a photo of her son Salvador Rios.
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“I support the gay community, always. Always. Love is love. But as a mom, it was not easy to accept that my son was going to be exposed, go through all these ordeals because the world is so mean,” the mother said. “My son, he experienced embarrassment, humiliation, pain."
She told NBC San Diego that students at two schools bullied him relentlessly in person and online.
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“I don’t want to know because I don’t want to read the messages, and I will never read the messages because this is the reason I think he took his life,” she said.
Rios told NBC San Diego that the August night it happened, Salvador had called her out of the blue.
"‘Are you sure you’re OK? Are you hungry?’" Rios said, recounting her final conversation with her son.
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“And he said, ‘No, I love you.’ And that was all,” she continued.
Since she posted her message on TikTok, her call for awareness has been gaining traction.
Fernando Lopez with San Diego Pride addressed the tragedy. They told NBC San Diego that a hyperpolarized political climate can be echoed anywhere in the community.
“What the research is saying is that our LGBT kids are not having an OK time right now. They're having disproportionate impacts to their mental health, and so in these moments, we want to make sure that parents, teachers and youth are fully aware of the breadth of resources available to them in this region," Lopez said.
Help is out there, from Pride, school district youth programs and YMCAs to the state and county-funded “The Collective Coalition."
“The most important thing that we need to instill in folks is knowing that there are people out there that love you, people out there that are going to have your back and support you and make sure that you're safe. And that's, I think, the most important." Lopez said.
Rios may have just laid Salvador to rest. But her life honoring his legacy and creating awareness is just beginning.
She said she filed a police report with the San Diego Unified School District. They did not immediately respond to our request for comment.
