Amanda Todd first posted her video in September in which she used flash cards to tell her story about crying every night and suffering anxiety, depression and panic disorder.
In short phrases, Todd explained how she and friends were playing on a camcorder and posting pictures online when she was in Grade 7. She was urged to “flash. So I did. 1 year later I got a msg on Facebook . . . Don’t know how he knew mee. It said. If you don’t put on a show for me I will send ur boobs. He knew my address, school, relatives, friends, family name.”
Todd said during Christmas break one year she received a knock on her door and it was the police telling her family that a photo of her had been circulated.
The family moved but Todd said she couldn’t go out of the house because her anxiety got worse. A year passed and the cyber-bully came back with a new list of her friends and her school. Her even made a Facebook page, Todd said.
“My boobs were his profile pic. Cried every night. Lost all my friends and respect people had for me,” she said through the flash cards.
A school board official confirmed Todd killed herself Wednesday.
On Twitter, a #RIPAmanda account had hundreds of followers posting their outrage and grief over the girl’s suicide.
Simon Fraser University criminologist Brenda Morrison, an expert on bullying and its impact in schools, said Thursday that not enough has been done to help young people being bullied online.
Jennifer Breakspear, executive director for Options for Sexual Health, the organization previously known as Planned Parenthood, said she was shocked to hear of the girl’s death and distressed to know that Todd’s suicide was not unique.
“It underscores how painful and how severely traumatizing cyber-bullying is,” she said. “People sit in front of a computer screen and feel that isolation. No one is sitting with them making them feel safe and this nastiness online is hurting people so deeply.”
Premier Christy Clark posted a video Thursday about Todd’s death saying no one deserves to be bullied.
“Bullying has to stop. Every child, everyone needs to be able to feel safe at school,” she said. “When we send our kids to school, we need to know they’re going to come home safe.”
Merlyn Horton, the executive director of Safe Online Outreach Society, a non-profit organization that teaches Internet safety to children, youth and their parents, said many victims go unnoticed.
“She put this video up in September and no one responded to it in a way that helped her enough so this didn’t happen,” said Horton. “And it’s heartbreaking because when you look at the video you see how many others pop up beside it with dozens of other kids expressing their struggles. Kids are falling through this very big hole.”
Coquitlam School district spokeswoman Cheryl Quinton said Thursday that Todd was a grade 10 student at CABE, the Coquitlam Alternate Basic Education school, and a team has been brought in to help students and staff.
Quinton said the school principal called Todd a “well-connected student” and that the school has a code of conduct against harassment or bullying.
Todd was receiving help from the school and the community, said Quinton, after her YouTube video became known to school officials.
Original Article
Source: the star
Author: Petti Fong
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