A bright 12-year-old East Harlem boy hanged himself after being relentlessly tormented by bullies because he was smart and short for his age, his devastated family said last night.
Joel Morales was even mocked because his father had died when he was just 2, relatives told The Post.
“My brother is not here because of bullying,” said a sobbing Richard Salazar, 25.
The boy’s heartbroken grandfather said kids, “threw sticks at him and rocks.
“He was a very smart kid. He was 12-years-old but he had the air of an 18-year-old,” Francisco Babilonia said.
“We never had a problem with him, he was such a nice kid. He kept everything inside, he didn’t want to burden his mother.
“My daughter complained to the teachers. She was complaining and complaining,” he said.
Even after he switched schools, the bullies continued making his life hellish.
“It stopped for a while but it started again. The kids knew he moved and they went to the after-school club and waited for him,” the grandfather said.
Joel’s mother, Lizbeth Babilonia, made the horrifying discovery Tuesday around 11:45 p.m. after she and a neighbor searched the area thinking he was late to return from an after school program.
When they returned to the building in the Jefferson Houses, Babilonia went into the bathroom and bellowed in pain after finding Joel death in the bathtub.
“I thought he had drowned, but then I saw the lacerations [around his neck] and I knew there was nothing I could do,” said the neighbor, Inez Rodriguez.
She then saw Lizbeth trying to cut herself and knocked the knife out of her hand.
“She kept saying she couldn’t live without her son,” Rodriguez said.
The boy’s aunt, Angelica Babilonia, said the child “was teased so much. He was really short, he was 12 but he looked 8,” she said.
“He was an angel. No one should have to go through this. I just want him back.”
Salazar said he confronted the grandmother of one his brother’s bullies, who denied her grandson was involved.
Salazar’s wife, Nancy Napoleoni, said she was outraged when she saw some of his bullies at a vigil held in front of the apartment building.
hfreund@nypost.com