AMANDA TODD: A LIFE TAKEN BY BULLYING

I ran across this story a few days ago. Honestly broke my heart. Such a pretty, young girl being abused by bullies time and time again.

I saw on YouTube a video called: My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self harm. Amanda Todd posted this video on September 7, 2012. In this video she describes all she was going through using a series of flash cards which has written all she was experiencing. During the video she states that when she was in 7th grade she would meet people through video chat they constantly complimented her on her beauty and more. One of these strangers convinced this poor girl to flash him then began blackmailing her with threats on showing everyone she knew her topless pictures. Which he did the next Christmas break, police notified her at 4:00 am. Due to this she was living and this pervert spreading pictures of a minor girls breasts, she starting suffering from anxiety, depression and panic disorder. She moved to a new school and later started taking alcohol and drugs. 

Not only was she already suffering but a year later when she was feeling a lot better this man shows up appear, this time creating a page on facebook and having his topless picture as his profile pic and contact her friends at school. Amanda was teased and changed schools a second time. She later starting chatting with "an old guy friend", this "guy friend" invited her to her house where they had sex while his girlfriend was again for the holidays. The week after that the girlfriend and a group attacked Amanda outside of her school punching and insulting her. Nobody helped her. After this attack Amanda drank bleach to try to kill herself but she was taken to the emergency room and they pumped her stomach.

When she returned home she started being cyberbullied, receiving messages on facebook about her failed attempt to kill herself and people stating they hope "she sees this and kills herself". She later moved to another city to make a clean start but it was useless. This guy pretended to be a new student coming into the school on facebook and started friending her new classmate. Later he sent Amanda's video to the school students, teachers and parents. Six months later there were still abusive posts being put everywhere on the internet. She being have more problems with her depression and starting harming herself, cutting. She was on anti-depressants and counseling and still overdosed a few days later and spend 2 days in the hospital. 

Amanda Todd was teased about her low grades, about a learning disability because of her language and for the time she spent in the hospital to treat her depression. 

Amanda Todd was found hung in her home on October 10, 2012 at around 6:00 pm. Amanda Todd took her own life due to all the bullying, she was only 15 years old.

This is a very sad story and there is a lot to be said about all these people who continuously made fun of this girl when she had these problems. She was completely taken advantage of by people she thought she could trust and people who she thought liked her. Amanda Todd felt alone, she felt she couldn't trust anyone. This is only one of many cases that I will write about. Amanda Todd make mistakes as we all do and there is no reason that she should have been driven to kill herself. People who have these problems mainly need friends and somebody to talk to. Amanda Todd did not deserve this. A young girl with her whole life ahead of her is gone because there were no actions taken against people hurting her. 

Welcome!!

I decided to write this page to open people's eyes about how far bullying situations could go. All over the world there are different bullying scenarios physical, verbal and emotional. Sometime people are not aware of how much these situations affect people. Lately I ran across many different stories of kids being bullied in school, honestly, I was shocked, heartbroken. As a parent I am very worried about these bullying situations because it is very close to all of us and could affect our own children. Many times when we hear that kids are being mocked, made fun us and so on, we tend to think or say that kids will be kids and tell them that these kids are just jealous and they should ignore them. Now, my question is: is this really the answer? Do we actually know how much pain these children are in? Do we really know how much this affect them psychologically? I really do not believe we do. 

I have worked in several schools and have seen bullying at its worst. Bullying about race, size, sexual orientation, economical situation, and so on. Here's the truth, you see kids being bullied and the truth is that nobody really takes it seriously, not even superiors, teachers, authority figures. There are times when something big happens, like a child taking their own life and then the most they do is have an assembly or talk in class about it. That's basically it.  This situation is sad and actually makes me angry. Bullying is something severe, something that can traumatize a child and have them even take their own life. 

BULLYING IS NOT OK. Nobody deserves to be bullied. Bullies may grown out of the bullying but what happens to those kids who remain scared forever! We as parents need to talk more with our kids, measures should be taken at the schools about the bullying. TALKING TO A BULLY WILL NOT MAKE THEM STOP! Assemblies are fine but do kids really listen during assemblies or are they just making fun, on cellphones and chatting with their friends? There seriously needs to take some action about it. Kids need someone to talk to, many times when kids are being bullied they feel alone, scared, they need somebody who can listen to them, advise them and basically be there for them. Feel free to write your opinions and ask for any information, and if any kids are reading this feel free to write about what you are experiencing or have experienced. 

I will be writing about different stories about consequences bullying has.... Stories which made my cry, get angry and decide that I will do everything I can to try to stop bullying. Lets get together and put a stop to this abuse.