Bullying, Struggling, Suicide: The Amanda Todd Story

 

On October 10, 2012 Amanda Michelle Todd tragically took her own life, after enduring months of physical, emotional, and psychological bullying and abuse from her peers at school, including the people she used to call her friends. This horrifying story began when Amanda was in 7^th grade. She, along with her friends, would go on Facebook as well as other social media websites, and use their webcams to chat and meet new people. By means of flattery and flirtation, Amanda was eventually persuaded to share a nude photograph of herself with a gentleman she has only met online. This particular gentleman was the beginning of the end of her life. Approximately a year later, Amanda was approached via the internet by a man claiming he knew who she was, where she went to school, who her family was, where she lived, etc... And that if she was unwilling to do a live performance for him, he would upload the nude photograph of her and send it public….. and that’s just what he did. After switching schools multiple times, and even moving to a new city, all to no avail, Amanda tragically took her own life!

This kind of behaviour is absolutely  unacceptable, what’s  worse is lack of intervention from the school administration, as well as the other people who knew this was happening and did nothing to stop it! Permitting this abusive and violent behaviour, especially when you have the obligation and ability to put an end to it, is both morally and ethically irresponsible. The burning question in this situation is “why?” How could we, as a society, have let this happen? This young lady needed the help and support of her friends and family but she was left feeling isolated, alone, and vulnerable. Meanwhile there were no preventative measures, and no consequences for the ruthless people who treated this poor girl with such injustice. The death rate of teenage suicides in our country is a rapidly climbing number! There was never a time when it was acceptable to be bystanders while someone in your community was is being subject to emotional and potentially even physical abuse from their peers and it certainly is not now!

If you, or anyone you know has been (or is being) bullied, please know that you are not alone. If you need someone to talk to, and feel as though there is no one in your personal life whom you can talk to right away about these issues, we encourage you to call the "Kids Help Phone Line" at  1-800-668-6868

or

If you would like to get involved, or for more information about bullying, how to recognize it, and preventative measures to help stop bullying, please visit the "Kids Help" website.

-AS

Participating In An Act Of Silence Is The Same As Promoting An Act Of Violence

It goes without saying that whenever tragedy strikes, a period of grief and sorrow is to follow shortly thereafter. It has become tradition that When disaster and misfortune have transpired in our lives, that we are to participate in a moment of silence as a sign of respect and commemoration for the occurrence. However, what many of us don’t think about, and in fact may not even realize, is that so often, in so many circumstances, silence is the disease that plagues our lives. Every single day, at any given time around the world incidents of violence, abuse, and intolerance are taking place, and slowly claiming the lives of their victims, while spectators and onlookers stand by silently, allowing these incidents to happen. It is not only our moral, but also our civil obligation to each other as a united human race to stand together and fight for each other as we work to extinguish the ideologies of violence, injustice, and inequality amongst each other. In the worlds of politics, religion, and spirituality, a dominant theme throughout much of history is the perception of making war to create peace, yet nobody seems so want to stand up and address how senseless this philosophy is! Peace is not a forceful action, it can only be created through education, acceptance, and understanding of one another. On a final note, I would like to express what a great blessing it is to know that today, under the leadership and positive examples of so many influential people and organizations, we are making progress.

A few helpful Organizations are:

The Trevor Project

The It Gets Better Project

The Womens Freedom Center

Safe Horizon

And so many others! If you need help, it is out there for you, all you have to do is ask!!

-AS