Gracie Hill took to her Facebook to share about a 15-year-old boy named Jonathan Christopher Arehart, who took his own life Friday night, November 14, 2025, at the Heritage High School football game in Catoosa County, Georgia.
The young boy played football for Heritage High School in Ringgold, Georgia.
Gracie expressed her frustration, and after reading everything, it’s hard not to feel the same way.
She wrote that the boy had told people at school more than once that his dad, Joseph Arehart, was hurting him. He asked for help several times; however, nothing happened.
Teachers, counselors, whoever heard it did nothing to help him.
In fact, the Catoosa County courts also knew about the abuse because reports had been made for years. Yet, they left Jonathan and his siblings, Jacob Arehart, Hailey Arehart, and Emily Arehart, in the same house.
Gracie says the system just kept failing him until the boy felt he had no way out except to end things right there at the game.
Following his passing, Heritage High sent out an email, a post apologizing and offering counseling to students. To which Gracie called disgusting, writing:
for heritage to send a sorry email and post out and offer counseling to the students to help navigate this tragic incident, when they did nothing to help the child who asked for it, is disgusting.
Gracie Hill
She said that they are offering help now that he’s gone, but when he was begging for it, nobody lifted a finger.
Gracie boldly wrote that the court and the high school need to be held accountable for Jonathan’s death, which reads:
to many kids are failed by the court system, we don’t get to keep making a sorry facebook post about them and move on, things absolutely need to change now before more people lose their lives and people need to be held accountable for those lost.
Gracie Hill
“This boy does not deserve to die in vein after being failed by all of those who were supposed to help,” she added.
The thing that hurt the most is that Jonathan’s mother, Eleonor Arehart, learned of his death on Facebook.
Because of some court order that got put in place after her lawyer bailed on her, she’s not even allowed to say goodbye to her own child.
She says for years she kept telling DFCS and the courts that her kids were depressed, talking about killing themselves, getting hurt at home. However, nobody listened, and now her child is gone.
Above all, she can’t even say goodbye and has to fight alone with emergency funds just to be able to attend the funeral.
Reportedly, his funeral services will be held at 12 Noon, Friday, November 21st, at Peavine Baptist Church with Nathan McCoy officiating. Interment will follow in Peavine Baptist Church Cemetery.
The family will receive friends 6-9 PM Thursday, November 20th, at Heritage Funeral Home & Crematory, Battlefield Parkway.
Eleonor posted her own cry for help to be able to attend her son’s funeral.
I am begging for any attorney, advocate, journalist, or person with a platform to hear my story.
Eleonor
I’m filing emergency motions, but I am alone and out of state.
Please share this. Please help me get to my son’s funeral.
She even made a Facebook page and wrote a tribute post, which reads:
My sweet Jonathan,
Eleonor
If love alone could have saved you, you would still be here.
From the first moment I held you, you became a part of my soul — my baby, my joy, my gentle-hearted boy. Today, as I write these words from far away, I wish more than anything that I could be standing here beside you, telling you these words in person.
This is not goodbye, Jonathan.
Not for me. Not ever.
She said that her name being absent from his obituary doesn’t mean she loved him any less. Eleanor wrote:
I’m so sorry, my baby.
Eleonor
I’m sorry you didn’t always feel the love that lived inside me for you.
I’m sorry the world felt heavy on your shoulders.
I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you in the ways I desperately wished I could.
“Jonathan, you will always be my son. I will always be your mother,” she added.
Eleonor wishes that she could hold his hand one last time, kiss his forehead, and whisper to him how much she loved him. However, now that she can’t, she is trusting these words to carry what her arms can’t.
With hopes of being together again, she promises to carry him in her heart for the rest of her life, to honor him, to speak his truth, and to fight for him and his siblings.
She ended the post, writing:
I love you, Jonathan.
Eleonor
Always.
Forever.
Beyond this world and into the next.
Love,
Mom
A lot of folks are saying Heritage High, the Catoosa County courts, DFCS, and the father all need to answer for what happened.
They want real investigations, real accountability, not just a sad Facebook post and some counseling sessions after the fact.
Jonathan is survived by his father, Joseph Arehart; his siblings, Jacob Arehart, Hailey Arehart, and Emily Arehart.
He also leaves behind his grandparents, Joe (Cindy) Arehart and Judy Arehart; his aunt, Callie (Marcel) Nicholas; and his cousins, Caleb Borhman, Laney Borhman, and Marcel Nicholas.
