15 year old girl kills herself after persistent bullying

[BloatedGuppy]

This is bad, and I feel sorry for her.

But, has anyone else noticed only female suicide victims really get noticed?

I'd say it's more a case of primarily young suicide victims getting noticed. I've never noticed a particularly strong male/female split.

This one just struck me because it's my home town, so my disgust with the ineffectiveness of the school board/police force/etc. is more visceral.

 

[hazabaza1]

Fuckin' hell.
I mean, yeah, flashing in the first place was dumb, anyone should know that showing private parts of your body around that age is gonna get you in shit but...
christ. Everyone involved in bullying her is a massive ****, speaking as someone who has been bullied.

 

[In Search of Username]

I don't want to be "that guy" but according to the article she was posting explicit videos and photos of herself online and got upset when some guy shared them with "everyone". Something tells me alot this could of been avoided if she wasn't an attention whore and kept her clothes on.

So it's her fault that people went out of there way to bully, torment and beat her so much she killed herself?

You have a serious problem with your view point, Jesus.

Obviously it's not anyone's fault entirely, but unless she was incredibly naive, she must have known she was posting those videos for some form of attention, either good or bad. It's a failure on the part of her family, herself, the school, and bullying individuals involved - it can't just be attributed to the bullies.

She was just a kid. Of course she was naive.

 

[generals3]

Sure, but that is far from what said. You compared her mistake of flashing herself on a whim and his thought out blackmailing. You don't blackmail someone on a whim, you don't track down their friends or family on a whim. You compare a 12 year old who did a terrible mistake to a guy who was blackmailing a minor into giving him a personal show.

You might think that it's fair to compare those two, but on the one side you have a guy who has committed two quite serious crimes, blackmail and distribution of child pornography. The fact that she commit suicide has nothing to do with my opinion of the matter he did. People go to jail for this kind of thing. You might say it was a mistake, but by that logic any rapist or murderer could simply say the same. It was a stupid mistake to stab the guy after taking off with his wallet. It's not a crime to make mistakes so why should so many have to be in jail over petty things like arson or rape?

But that's not my point. The argument i refuted was that "kids do stupid things" somehow justifies stupid actions. The bullies were stupid and bullying is a stupid thing and as such should be protected by that argument too. I personally find the whole argument that somehow it's normal to do stupid things because you're expected to be stupid to be rather silly.

And i don't even understand why you just threw those last sentences at me since i have since the beginning firmly stated that stupidity is no justification for anything. At most it can count as a mildly attenuating circumstance.

 

[In Search of Username]

I don't want to be "that guy" but according to the article she was posting explicit videos and photos of herself online and got upset when some guy shared them with "everyone". Something tells me alot this could of been avoided if she wasn't an attention whore and kept her clothes on.

What I don't understand is how this could be an issue in an age when literally (and I do mean literally) at LEAST 30% of girls in high school have shared something nude or highly sexual with someone else.

Seriously.

I hardly know a single girl in real life from high school personally that didn't share nude pics at some point before graduation, and most of them were at some point at least viewed by someone other than the intended recipient, but never did my high school have bullying problems related to it other than ONE single case by a bunch of jock assholes and a girl that dated one of them.

Shit, I don't know what age my own damn sister was, but she's shared nude pics with her now-ex boyfriend and understood that he'd probably end up showing some of his friends (who, sadly, include most of my friends).

The case here seems a bit of an anomaly, since a huge minority (possibly a majority) of girls under 18 now have done the exact same thing without massive bullying.

Your high school sounds insane. Pretty sure it's not like that everywhere.

 

[generals3]

Again, though, where is this collation between flashing someone and active malice coming from? Are we THAT appalled by the idea of someone being needy, or wanting attention? Is the sight of someone's breasts so horrifying that a lifetime of abuse is a logical consequence? I have to admit, I'm struggling with the logic of this. It's not like we're all members of the Taliban, right? Since when do we view the world through that lens?

I'm not advocating young girls run around showing their breasts, but I cannot understand why (some) people are acting like it's morally abhorrent behavior.

"She was what...12 or so at the time? Did you make a lot of intelligent decisions at that age?". This was what you said. As if somehow the fact you're kid justifies stupidity. And since the bullies weren't adults and bullying is surely not an intelligent action why would that sentence suddenly not apply? Why sure, the consequences and intend may be different that isn't something such an argument takes into account at all. Stupid is stupid.

And i never said it is normal to expect such bullying from such a stupid action. I have myself expressed my disgust towards those bullies. Heck there was a similar incident which happened in my secondary school back in the days and i refused to participate to any kind of bullying (some people even printed the pictures and hanged them up in the school, which i found totally over the top). But at the same time she shouldn't have done what she did either, it was stupid and unnecessary. In an ideal world doing things like that shouldn't hold dire consequences but since we live in an imperfect world you have to take into account things can go wrong. I mean, it's not my fault if someone steals my car but if i leave my car open in the street and it gets stolen people will tell me i'm stupid and my insurance company would most likely not reimburse me anything (if it can be proven my door was open).

 

[Yopaz]

Sure, but that is far from what said. You compared her mistake of flashing herself on a whim and his thought out blackmailing. You don't blackmail someone on a whim, you don't track down their friends or family on a whim. You compare a 12 year old who did a terrible mistake to a guy who was blackmailing a minor into giving him a personal show.

You might think that it's fair to compare those two, but on the one side you have a guy who has committed two quite serious crimes, blackmail and distribution of child pornography. The fact that she commit suicide has nothing to do with my opinion of the matter he did. People go to jail for this kind of thing. You might say it was a mistake, but by that logic any rapist or murderer could simply say the same. It was a stupid mistake to stab the guy after taking off with his wallet. It's not a crime to make mistakes so why should so many have to be in jail over petty things like arson or rape?

But that's not my point. The argument i refuted was that "kids do stupid things" somehow justifies stupid actions. The bullies were stupid and bullying is a stupid thing and as such should be protected by that argument too. I personally find the whole argument that somehow it's normal to do stupid things because you're expected to be stupid to be rather silly.

And i don't even understand why you just threw those last sentences at me since i have since the beginning firmly stated that stupidity is no justification for anything. At most it can count as a mildly attenuating circumstance.

I understood your point. I just don't understand how you can say that committing two crimes is merely a stupid mistake. I don't understand how you can compare doing something dtupid on a whim to actually put effort into hurting a person.

Sure the blackmail message could have been dismissed as jut a stupid mistake. Actually going through with the threats make it something else. I don't see a point in discussing this further if you're going to be blind enough to dismiss a well thought out blackmail scheme as a mistake.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

And i never said it is normal to expect such bullying from such a stupid action. I have myself expressed my disgust towards those bullies. Heck there was a similar incident which happened in my secondary school back in the days and i refused to participate to any kind of bullying (some people even printed the pictures and hanged them up in the school, which i found totally over the top). But at the same time she shouldn't have done what she did either, it was stupid and unnecessary. In an ideal world doing things like that shouldn't hold dire consequences but since we live in an imperfect world you have to take into account things can go wrong. I mean, it's not my fault if someone steals my car but if i leave my car open in the street and it gets stolen people will tell me i'm stupid and my insurance company would most likely not reimburse me anything (if it can be proven my door was open).

This is a perfect analogy, really.

Leaving your car unlocked/open is a stupid mistake with a lousy consequence.

Entering someone's unlocked/open car and stealing their shit is not a stupid mistake, it's an act of malice/crime.

 

[generals3]

I understood your point. I just don't understand how you can say that committing two crimes is merely a stupid mistake. I don't understand how you can compare doing something dtupid on a whim to actually put effort into hurting a person.

Sure the blackmail message could have been dismissed as jut a stupid mistake. Actually going through with the threats make it something else. I don't see a point in discussing this further if you're going to be blind enough to dismiss a well thought out blackmail scheme as a mistake.

Well bullying and blackmailing to get more nude stuff sure don't count as "intelligent decisions" in my book. The difference lies into the fact that one action was just stupid and the bullies were doing malicious stupid things. But both are stupid actions. And as such are comparable on that aspect. Which leads to the point that stupidity cannot justify itself.

PS: and just to be clear. There was clear stupidity in the actions of the bullies because they most likely never intended to get her to commit suicide and were most likely not entirely conscious of the full scale of their actions. And it wouldn't surprise me that they now feel a lot of regret and if they don't now they will when they'll become adults.

 

[Sunrider]

I know I'm gonna get a lot of crap for this, but I'm gonna say it anyway.
I hope someone who isn't a sissy like me goes out to find these bullies, with the sole intention of making them swim with cement shoes.
If you're a bully, you are worthless in my eyes.
This is not a mature stance, I realize this, and I don't care. If you're a bully, you're an "untermensch". Not all people are of equal value. This incident is yet more evidence of this.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

Random personal attacks, more defense of bullying, more weird semantic nitpicking, etc, etc, etc

I started out replying to this, got about 2-3 replies in, and just got sick of it. We're just going to have to go back to "I hear your impassioned defense of bullying, and it is duly noted". Like, seriously guy, I hear you. I see you tilting at windmills, and I acknowledge that those windmills are gonna need to look out.

Sure they do, but the victim does as well.

Amusingly, since you seem to have a bug up your ass about picking fights, we're more or less in agreement on both points, there. Ultimately, someone committing suicide always bears responsibility for that decision. I'm not proud of her for choosing to commit suicide, nor do I think the decision was taken out of her hands. However, that does not utterly negate any compassion I might feel.

So how does this work, then? Your relentless fascination with pointless semantic sidebars and barrage of personal attacks have achieved their desired effect and completely obliterated any interest I had in continuing this discussion. So you are the winner, then? Is that how it goes? Who do we contact about having some points added to your score?

 

[Yopaz]

I understood your point. I just don't understand how you can say that committing two crimes is merely a stupid mistake. I don't understand how you can compare doing something dtupid on a whim to actually put effort into hurting a person.

Sure the blackmail message could have been dismissed as jut a stupid mistake. Actually going through with the threats make it something else. I don't see a point in discussing this further if you're going to be blind enough to dismiss a well thought out blackmail scheme as a mistake.

Well bullying and blackmailing to get more nude stuff sure don't count as "intelligent decisions" in my book. The difference lies into the fact that one action was just stupid and the bullies were doing malicious stupid things. But both are stupid actions. And as such are comparable on that aspect. Which leads to the point that stupidity cannot justify itself.

PS: and just to be clear. There was clear stupidity in the actions of the bullies because they most likely never intended to get her to commit suicide and were most likely not entirely conscious of the full scale of their actions. And it wouldn't surprise me that they now feel a lot of regret and if they don't now they will when they'll become adults.

I didn't claim it was an intellectual decision. I said there was thought behind the decision and some degree of planning. Taking an effort into spreading it around also requires thought.

Thank you for proving me right here. No reason to discuss this, it seems like you think this was something that accidentally happened.

 

[Xdeser2]

Sadly, It seems most people in my age demographic dont seem to really think about what they do, think about what they say and how it can affect others, or even give a shit about other people.


Really pisses me off when I see someone getting bullied and then just hear "Oh we were just joking!" -_-

 

[generals3]

I didn't claim it was an intellectual decision. I said there was thought behind the decision and some degree of planning. Taking an effort into spreading it around also requires thought.

Thank you for proving me right here. No reason to discuss this, it seems like you think this was something that accidentally happened.

I beg to differ. Teenagers don't plan things like that like the crew in Ocean's eleven. the whole blackmailing thing could have been something he did on impulse. He wanted more stuff and he may have suddenly stumbled upon the idea of blackmailing her without thinking it through. I doubt he had some sort of meeting with friends where he planned this all out and thought everything through. Now, it is possible it was carefully planned out but i seriously doubt so.

 

[R3dF41c0n]

It's tragic the girl took her own life but after watching the video I'm having a hard time feeling any sympathy. Her parents (who appeared to be divorced) clearly were not involved in her life. The kids with the pictures of her should have been charged with possession of child pornography (unless the law differes in Canada than the US), and her parents should have kept her off the social media.

I think the real problem is parents just are not involved in their children's lives. And I don't mean "hover parents", but simply knowing what's going on. There is no reason those children who beat her should have gotten away with it. My HS had a zero tolerence policy for stuff like that. Maybe Canada is different.

I hope my wife and I do a better job raising a child. I think my generation has a better chance at avoiding situations like this because we understand social media. Still, it breaks my heart to read stuff like this.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Looks like the attention whore is getting plenty of attention now.

Wow dude, that's messed up. She was 12 when she showed her breasts, too young to know it would lead to this.

OT: As someone who nearly shot himself in the head in 2007 due to bullying it breaks my heart to see stuff like this still happening.