The mother of a teenager who died Wednesday of suspected suicide wants her daughter’s anti-cyber-bullying video to be used to help other young people.
Fifteen-year-old Amanda Todd was found dead in a Port Coquitlam home at 6 p.m. Wednesday, five weeks after she posted a heartbreaking video on YouTube about her own experience with online harassment and bullying.
“I think the video should be shared and used as an anti-bullying tool. That is what my daughter would have wanted,” Carol Todd, Amanda’s mother, told The Vancouver Sun in a message on Twitter.
In September, Amanda posted a video to YouTube entitled My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self harm.
In it Amanda does not speak, but instead holds up to the camera pieces of paper on which she has printed her story, one phrase at a time. She documented a painful tale of being harassed online and being shunned at school, leaving her feeling alone and suicidal.
Near the end of the video, she writes: “Every day I think why am I still here? ... I have nobody. I need someone.”
Click here to see more photos of Amanda Todd
In a message accompanying the video post, Amanda added: “I’m not doing this (video) for attention. I’m doing this to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong.”
Students and staff at Amanda’s school were grieving her death Thursday.
“It is a very sad case,” said Paul McNaughton, principal of CABE (Coquitlam Alternate Basic Education), where Amanda was in Grade 10.
“She was quite connected here. The staff and the students here are very much impacted. She had some very strong ties in the school and to staff in the school.
“I can tell you we feel we tried everything we could to help her when she came to us.”
Premier Christy Clark posted a short video on YouTube Thursday sending her sympathies to Amanda’s family.
“I want to say to everyone who loved her, to all her family and friends, how sorry I am about her loss,” Clark — who spearheaded an anti-bullying campaign while she was a radio host — says in the video.
“No one deserves to be bullied. No one earns it. No one asks for it. It isn’t a rite of passage. Bullying has to stop.”
Amanda, a former cheerleader with the Vancouver All Stars squad based in Coquitlam, attended school in Maple Ridge from January 2011 to February 2012, when she transferred to CABE in Coquitlam.
In her video, Amanda says she moved schools in a futile attempt to escape her bullies.
Spokeswomen for the Maple Ridge and Coquitlam school districts would not discuss the case directly, but both said their districts take action when they receive bullying complaints.
Grief counsellors were speaking to students in both districts Thursday.
Dr. Tyler Black, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at B.C. Children’s Hospital, said the reasons people commit suicide are often very complex. He urged parents, educators and youth at risk of suicide to realize there is help through options such as
www.youthinbc.com or 1-800-SUICIDE.
“The message is there are professionals there, there are people out there who can help,” he said.
On a positive note, Black added, suicide among youth aged 10 to 24 dropped 25 per cent from 2000 to 2009.
McNaughton, the principal of CABE, said the family doesn’t want to speak to the media. “We’re respecting their wishes,” he said.
Amanda joined YouTube on Sept. 6 and posted her video Sept. 7.
On Sept. 7, Amanda also uploaded a slide-show presentation called Cyber Bullying on Prezi.com, in which she gives advice on how to deal with such harassment.
In what could turn out to be her own very sad legacy, Amanda urged people to stand up to bullies and to help the victims:
“If you see that someone is being bullied, don’t be afraid to tell the bully to stop doing what they are doing. Make sure to tell them that it’s wrong and that they shouldn’t bully other kids.”
Amanda told parents “to always give your child emotional support” and to help them if they are being bullied.
B.C.’s education ministry announced last month that it will spend $2 million on a strategy called ERASE Bullying. The strategy includes a confidential online bullying reporting service that will allow students, school staff, parents and members of the public to make anonymous reports about potential or actual cases of school bullying and violence.
The Amanda Michelle Todd memorial Facebook page, created Wednesday morning, had more than 11,000 people “liking it” by early evening. Hundreds of people were also posting comments on the site.
“My thoughts and prayers go to her family, I cannot even begin to imagine what they are going through. High school is supposed to be the best time of your life, not one where you fear for yourself every day. No one should have to feel the way she did,” wrote Breanna Lockhart Collins. “She was a beautiful young girl who went way too soon.”
In a post on its Facebook page, G Force Gym — home of the Vancouver All Stars cheerleaders — wrote:
“Today we feel the loss of our former VAS family member Amanda ... I ask that we all watch her video and share her story so that her loss is not in vain. Allow this to be her legacy ... Allow us all to look around & find the next Amanda before another precious spunky teenager is lost.”
Amanda’s video echoed another similar online story entitled My Story: Suicide and Bullying, which had been uploaded by Mollydoyle18 on YouTube.
Commenting on Amanda’s video, Molly posted Wednesday:
“Rest in peace and fly high to Amanda Todd. I was just messaging her about almost a week ago, and I just found out that she has taken her life. She was asking me about how to be an inspiration to others and to get her video more views, and now I have found out that she has passed away ... This is a terrible tragedy. I wish she could have had her happy ending
Read more:
http://www.vancouversun.com/technol...wit h+video/7375941/story.html#ixzz293jck4O1
but thanks for posting it.
