As hundreds gathered at Christ Episcopal Church near downtown Friday to mourn the death of a former Alamo Heights High School sophomore who killed himself, police officials confirmed that they are investigating allegations that relentless cyberharassment led the 16-year-old to take his life.

David Molak’s family has said that dozens of comments, some from former classmates at Alamo Heights, posted on Instagram drove the young man to despair.

“It’s an unspeakable tragedy that anyone would kill themselves, that it would get so bad that they would kill themselves because of bullying,” San Antonio Police Chief William McManus said at the funeral.

Reports of Molak’s death have gone viral after one of his brothers posted on Facebook an account of the pain David Molak endured and a plea for healing.

According to a San Antonio Police Department report, Molak was found dead in his backyard before dawn Monday. The Bexar County medical examiner’s office ruled the death a suicide.

The report, which is heavily redacted, includes a statement given to police by an unidentified friend or relative of Molak that he had attempted suicide twice before.

More Information To get help Suicide crisis hotline for children and adults: (800) 316-9241 or (210) 223-7233. The hotline will conduct preliminary screenings and refer to the adult or children crisis centers: Children’s Crisis Center, 227 W. Drexel, 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday, with mobile crisis outreach 24 hours; Adult Crisis Services, 601 N. Frio St., open 24 hours. In addition to providing crisis services, the centers can coordinate hospitalization if necessary, as well as follow-up care, including referrals to counseling and psychiatric services. A mobile crisis team can visit homes or schools if deemed necessary and will coordinate hospitalization when appropriate for those with or without insurance. National resource: U.S. National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK, a free, 24-hour service that can provide a suicidal person or those around them with support, information and local resources.

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Another statement given to police at the time indicated that he was being bullied on social media over his appearance, the report said.

According to Cliff Molak, an older brother, the alleged harassment started around October and led to the teen’s parents transferring him from Alamo Heights High to San Antonio Christian School before Christmas.

The comments were posted on an Alamo Heights student’s private account on Instagram, a widely used photo-sharing app, in October, around the time Molak became the target of bullying, his family has told police and media.

Screenshots of the profanity-laced comments, which grew more vicious over time, were obtained by the San Antonio Express-News.

The comments were posted on a photo shared by an Alamo Heights High student who had a following of nearly 900 people who could have seen the comments. The image shows the male student posing beside a girl who many, including Molak’s brother, have identified as the deceased teen’s girlfriend.

“[…] steal you (sic) girl,” the poster captioned the photo, tagging Molak in the conversation.

“Molak’s an ape,” one Alamo Heights student commented. “The monkey looking human gets his woman stolen.”

The comments continue with others advocating physical violence between Molak and the original poster.

“Put um inna coffin,” one teen said, while another mimicked with “Put em 6 feet under.”

A few commenters begged the tormentors to stop.

The Alamo Heights Independent School District said its main priority is guiding students through the grieving process. Once facts of the case become available, appropriate disciplinary actions against students involved will be administered if the district found that bullying took place on school grounds, district officials said.

“Everyone has a hand in our community in making sure everyone is safe,” district Superintendent Kevin Brown told mySA.com on Thursday. “I think we have really strong (bullying) policies right now, but a policy can’t make someone make good choices. We, as adults, need to help young people respect each other. Our society has too much focus on negativity and not on supporting one another.”

Alamo Heights is a well-regarded school district with a strong academic record that has attempted in various ways to address issues such as the achievement gap and social and emotional problems.

Brown earlier this week, called Molak’s death the “district’s worst nightmare.”

Potentially lethal harassment

It’s the very nature of digital social media — the anonymous texts, the fake names, the herd instinct — that make it such a potent and potentially lethal form of bullying, much more dangerous than the youthful schoolyard antagonism of yore, experts said.

National studies show that 7 percent of students in the United States between the ages of 6 and 12 report having experienced “cyberbullying”: the sort of social media harassment alleged in Molak’s death. A different survey found that 15 percent of high school students said they’d been cyberbullied at one time or another.

Cyberbullying differs from the conventional kind.

“In traditional bullying, there are people who can observe and potentially take some action. What’s so dangerous about cyberbullying is it can be done secretly. These kids are on their phones at night, after they’re supposed to be in bed, and no one knows about it except (the victim) and the perpetrators,” said Geoff Gentry, senior vice president of clinical services at Clarity Child Guidance Center. He is a member of the Alamo Area Teen Suicide Prevention Coalition, which was formed a year ago in response to a spike in child and teen suicides.

Gentry said studies show that an adolescent’s ability to make good judgments is diminished when there are other adolescents present, without adult supervision, a tendency that only intensifies as the crowd grows.

“That’s the isolating part of cyberbullying,” he said. “If there are multiple people involved in the bullying, it can increase the damage and the intensity done to the (victim), and the (youthful perpetrators) will do stuff they would never do alone. It enhances the poor judgment and aggression.”

What also makes insults over the Internet so damaging is the way they can be shared instantaneously with hundreds — even thousands or millions — of people, creating an echo chamber of shame seemingly impossible to escape.

Moreover, for the cyberbully victim, there’s no running away from the tormentor who is, say, pushing you into a locker. You can’t find refuge at home or anywhere else because of social media’s ubiquity, Gentry said.

“It’s all happening on the (victim’s) brain and screen,” Gentry said. “That makes them feel even more isolated and helpless. They could turn off the screen or phone, but a lot of times, kids don’t think of that.”

Taking action

Nearly three dozen states have enacted laws that ban cyberbullying in schools because of its potential for threats and tragedy. Nationwide, some youthful perpetrators of electronic harassment have been charged and prosecuted for their acts after the victims killed themselves.

Some states, such as Connecticut, have passed legislation requiring schools to report incidents of bullying, including cyberbullying, to the state and to more thoroughly inform parents of the danger.

In Texas, several legislative bills were introduced last session that dealt with harassment and hazing in public schools, but none passed.

The youth suicide prevention coalition was formed after nine people in Bexar County under age 18 killed themselves in 2014 — more than twice the number of any given year in recent times and approaching a high of 12, set in the early 1990s.

Data on the number of youth suicides in 2015 isn’t available yet, according to the medical examiner’s office.

The coalition has brought together about 50 experts from across the local nonprofit, education, legal and mental health fields to examine what might have fueled a spike in youth suicides and what can be done to stop them.

Marian Sokol of the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas, a leader in the group, said that so far the coalition has focused on developing a strategic plan of action to determine the best approach to addressing the issue.

“We’ve been talking to local school districts, those who work in juvenile probation, the nonprofit community,” she said. “There appear to be clusters of high-risk children, those who might have mental health issues, and there are those youth with self-esteem issues who end up picking on others.”

Sokol said the group has raised $50,000 to hire a part-time employee for a year and a half whose job is to move the group’s recommendations forward, such as a suicide prevention text line, support groups in local schools and a public awareness campaign.

The group hasn’t yet directly addressed the problem of cyberbullying, Sokol said.

“We are identifying best practices, what is recommended by the state and national youth suicide prevention programs and experts,” said Kathy Fletcher, CEO of Voices for Children and a leader in the group. “We’re developing a teen advisory board. Five school districts are on our steering committee, as well as (Education Service Center) Region 20.”

A confluence of stressors

Mental health experts say children and teens who attempt or complete suicide often have more than one precipitating event that prompts them to take such a drastic step: substance abuse, mental illness, a family loss or some combination of stressors.

In mid-November, Molak’s parents had transferred him to the private school in an effort to escape his tormentors. He took his own life the night before he was to return to school.

“The Molak family shared with us that David was the target of bullying at his previous school. We knew that David and his parents were excited that he would have a change of environment,” San Antonio Christian School’s Toni Brothers said in a statement Friday. “After reading numerous reports online, we now understand the bullying from his previous school continued even after he began attending school here.”

mstoeltje@express-news.net

mmendoza@mysa.com