I don’t care who you are. You have to watch this 8-minute video of a child crying for help, crying for someone, crying to be left alone. This video will have you in tears.
Amanda Todd was found dead in Coquitlam on Wednesday night, less than a month before her 16th birthday. Coquitlam RCMP stated that they were called to a Port Coquitlam home on Wednesday evening for the “sudden death of a teenager.” Amanda’s death is not considered as suspicious.
Amanda Todd finally succumbed to her bullies and killed herself one month after making this video attached.
I am not going to tell her story because the video that is posted below speaks for itself and the torture that Amanda Todd had to deal with. I hope that the bullies who destroyed her life has that video and the face of Amanda Todd is implanted in their brain for life. I hope that they are able to teach their children about their wrong doing very openly and honestly.
I hope that those who didn’t talk to Amanda “in fear of” will get brave and stand up to the bullies and extend a hug. It is not their fault and they need to know that too.
When will the bullying stop?
As parents we truly need to stop and listen. We need to stop the madness of mean-spirited children hiding behind a screen and hurting another person. We need to focus on getting these children to play on the school yards, football fields, and local parks. We need these children to learn that compassion is learned through looking at someone in the eyes and feeling their joy or pain. We need to live by example and do the same. No mean-spirited person can ever learn about having a conscience on Facebook or Twitter. To them, profile pictures are simply targets for their wrath.
Bullying has always existed, but it’s so much more escalated today. From this little girl’s mistake in Grade 7 to her tragic beating later, this girl shouldn’t have blamed herself for her misgivings. She is a young girl who knew compassion because she didn’t want anyone to hate, while all along so many people spewed their hate on her.
I ask all of you to watch the video and take another 8-minutes to think about one small change that you can make to help stop bullying.
It all takes me back to my daughter’s bullying incident and hearing the response “Well you know boys at that age…”, from the our School Board Superintendent. What more could have been done to save her?
Update: Since writing this post, I had 390 visits in a little over an hour. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all did a little searching about bullying on a daily basis just as quickly as we looked up “Amanda Todd”? We just may save a life. If only it was that easy to find them.
