Look on the picture above and weep. 12 year-old Rebecca Ann
Sedwick, after being viciously targeted by cyberbullies for over a year,
climbed over a high fence with barbed wire on top, then made her way to the top
of a platform at an abandoned cement plant and jumped to her death.
Twelve years old.
It’s easy to want to blame somebody but that won’t bring
Rebecca back, or change anything for the next child who gets victimized. Is
being victimized right now and contemplating suicide because he or she doesn’t
know where to turn, doesn’t believe there’s any safe haven. Can’t really talk
to their parents, doesn’t get any support from school. Can’t say anything to
friends for fear of being laughed at. Or doesn’t have any friends.
It’s hard enough for adults to understand that when somebody
trashes you it’s not a reflection of you; it doesn’t say anything about you at
all but it does say a whole lot about them, and none of it is pretty. If adults
can’t get their head around that, how on earth can children?
They can’t and they don’t. Rebecca’s mother did everything
she could. She knew about the bullying, she was very concerned about it, she
closed down Rebecca’s Facebook account, complained to the school where Rebecca
was being real-world bullied as well, took away her cellphone for a while.
The school promised to give Rebecca an escort between
classes but they never came through.
Rebecca’s mother moved her to another
school. For a while it seemed to work. Relieved from the bullying, she became
happier, more relaxed, more like her old self before the bullying started.
But the bullying started again. The day before she killed herself
she told her mother she wanted to hurt herself really badly. The next day she
changed her ID on a cyber app to That Dead Girl and left her mobile and her books
at home. Instead of going to school she went to that abandoned cement plant. Climbed the platform and jumped. And found
peace that nobody could take away from her.
Rest in peace, Rebecca Ann Sedwick, beautiful child.
