CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — More than a decade after losing his son to suicide, Mingo Molina has replaced a memorial sign along Waldron Road in Flour Bluff to continue raising awareness about bullying and mental health.
Molina said his son, Teddy, was bullied from a young age, with the harassment getting worse once he reached high school.
“He was Asian and Hispanic. A lot of kids kind of poked at him for things like that,” Molina said.
Teddy Molina died at just 16 years old on April 1. 2012.
“It got really bad. He couldn’t take it any longer. One day he went into his room and pulled out a hunting rifle and took his life,” Molina said.
Molina said the pain from that day has never gone away.
“Something you can never prepare yourself for,” he said.
He also said the tragedy affected other parts of his life, including his marriage. He and his wife are now separated.
“When something like this happens you have no idea what to do or how to act. I made some bad decisions and it tore us apart. I just hope that one day we can reconcile,” Molina said.
Despite the hardship, Molina said his main goal is to use his son’s story to create change and prevent other families from experiencing the same loss.
“There’s a lot of people that are outraged by the way kids are treated, but nothing is being done about it. It’s going to take the parents getting behind the kids and rally together and make some changes,” he said.
When Molina noticed the original memorial sign had begun to deteriorate after more than 10 years, he decided it was time to replace it.
When asked what he hopes people think when they see the sign, Molina said, “Hopefully they think about their child in school, and whether they’re being bullied or what’s going through their head, and if they’re OK.”
Molina said his final message to the community comes from Luke 6:31: Do to others as you would have them do to you.
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