Schoolmates of a bullied US teenager who committed suicide taunted him even after he died, media reports say.
Jamey Rodemeyer, 14, who was openly gay, killed himself outside his family's suburban Buffalo home in New York on September 19.
One student at Williamsville North High School was suspended on Friday after reportedly harassing Jamey's 16-year-old sister Alyssa at the school's homecoming dance last week.
"It sickens me," their father Timothy Rodemeyer said of reports some students chanted "better off dead" when dance organisers played a song in Jamey's honour by his favourite singer, Lady Gaga, who has memorialised him in her anti-bullying comments.
"Your mind just spins at 100 miles per hour. How can someone do that? I don't understand how someone could be so cruel," Tracy Rodemeyer, Jamey's mother, said.
"Everybody has a story about bullying but never, never have I ever seen it where somebody would be happy that someone is dead from their actions."
Gaga dedicated one of her songs, Hair, to Jamey at her Las Vegas concert last week, saying: "I lost a little monster this week and I'd like to dedicate this song to him," E! Online reported.
"Tonight, Jamey I know you're up there and looking at us and you're not a victim. Bullying is for losers. Put your hands up for Jamey," she said.
She tweeted a few days earlier: "I am meeting with our President. I will not stop fighting. This must end. Our generation has the power to end it. Trend it #MakeALawForJamey."
Anti -bullying law
The suspension came as US police and lawmakers grappled with ways to prevent the kind of schoolyard bullying being blamed for Jamey's death.
Mr and Mrs Rodemeyer are calling for changes in how New York schools handle the kind of chronic harassment that drove their son to kill himself.
"It's the only thing that's keeping us going, to try and get the word out," Tracy Rodemeyer told Reuters.
Already the move has resulted in proposed state legislation aimed at stopping online taunts, known as cyber-bullying.
It follows neighbouring New Jersey's new anti-bullying law - the toughest in the US - after the suicide last year of a gay Rutgers University student who was bullied.
At the start of this school year, New Jersey officials worried tight budgets might make it difficult to uphold the law, which requires a uniform response to each and every incidence of bullying, including corrective action plans and time frames for intervention.
Criminal charges against bullies?
US police continue to investigate Jamey's death to determine if criminal charges should be brought against some of the teens accused of harassing him, officials said.
Jamey had talked to his mother about being gay for the first time about a year ago.
In May, he contributed to an online video for an international campaign called "It Gets Better", designed to help young gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people confirm their identity and survive the pitfalls of being different.
Mrs Rodemeyer said the teasing that followed Jamey through grade school and into high school included taunts of "fag" and "girly girl" hurled at the boy who kept mostly female friends.
While his online message in May was one of hope, Mrs Rodemeyer said it was clear now he put up a strong front to hide the deep hurt within.
School guidance counsellors and social workers met with Jamey over the years but none seemed to strive to help him, Mr Rodemeyer said.
One counsellor's advice was simply to stop spending time with girls, he said.
One big problem is that harassment may seem endless for some teens, deepening their despair, said Dr Stuart Green, of the New Jersey Coalition for Bullying Awareness, who helped draft the New Jersey anti-bullying legislation.
"In 12 years of taking phone calls from parents I've never once gotten a call where a parent was upset about something that happened yesterday. It's months and years," he said.
The proposed legislation in New York to make it easier to prosecute online bullying is aimed at creating a "chilling effect" to discourage the harassment, said Rich Azzopardi, spokesman for state Senator Jeffrey Klein, author of the bill.
"Years ago, drunken driving wasn't viewed as a big deal, even though it has the potential to kill people. What we're doing with bullying is changing people's perception of it," Mr Azzopardi said.
For the Rodemeyers, that shift can't come soon enough.
"We're really supposed to be learning from our mistakes and this is the next biggest one," Mrs Rodemeyer said.
Reuters and Glenda Kwek
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