Teen who posted video on bullying found dead
TORONTO Canada was in uproar Friday over a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was found dead, an apparent suicide, five weeks after she uploaded a video to YouTube describing years of bullying that drove her to drugs and alcohol.
Coroner Barb McLintock said Thursday night that preliminary indications suggest the British Columbia girl, Amanda Todd, killed herself. Her school district's spokeswoman, Cheryl Quinton, confirmed the girl in the video was her.
In the 9-minute video posted on Sept. 7, the 10th-grader and cheerleader didn't speak but told her story in haunting detail in a series of handwritten notes that she held up to the camera.
She said she was lured by a stranger to expose her breasts on a webcam and the picture ended up on a Facebook page made by the stranger, to which her friends were added.
She wrote of being plunged into anxiety, depression, drugs and alcohol. She said she changed schools but an encounter with another girl's boyfriend started the bullying again, which this time escalated into a physical attack in which she said she was beaten.
When she got home, she wrote, she drank bleach. "It killed me inside and I thought I actually was going to die."
She was rushed to a hospital to flush out the bleach. More anxiety, cutting and overdosing followed, her struggles with anxiety and cutting herself got worse, and despite counseling and antidepressants, she was rushed to hospital again after an overdose.
The last cards said simply: "I have nobody. I need someone. My name is Amanda Todd."
Beneath the video, Todd posted a note saying she produced it not for attention, but "to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong."
"Everyone's future will be bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I'm still here, aren't I?"
Coroner McClintock said she died in her home Wednesday. Her office released no other details.
Her family could not be reached by phone. The Coquitlam Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the family is not prepared to speak publicly and have asked that their privacy be respected.
The girl's death was headline news nationally Friday, with (hash)RIPAmanda trending across Twitter and the Amanda Michelle Todd memorial Facebook page garnering more than 30,000 "likes."
Cyber-bullying experts and criminologists suggested laws be strengthened to allow police to trace cyber bullies through the Internet.
British Premier Christy Clark posted a video on YouTube deploring the tragedy. Bullying "isn't a rite of passage," she said. "Bullying has to stop."
The British Columbia gym where Amanda was a cheerleader posted a statement on its Facebook page.
"I ask that we all watch her video and share her story so that her loss is not in vain," the statement read. "Allow this to be her legacy. Allow us to all look around and find the next Amanda before another precious spunky teenager is lost."
Shock, sadness and recriminations poured out on a Facebook page devoted to her, with one signatory accusing others of having participated in the bullying.
Irena Pochop, communications manager for the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows school district east of Vancouver, confirmed Amanda was enrolled in the district and had changed schools this year.
She would not address the girl's specific case but said the district had a detailed system in place to protect victims.
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Those boys who tormented a school bus monitor last spring, they were punished: is everyone going to let these vicious, violent bullies get off without any reprimand or consequences?
And what of the man who posted her picture and shamed her to her friends? That is especially wicked and vicious. And I believe a crime was committed... I hope they find him and I hope Facebook fully cooperates.
Unless these people are confronted, will they do it AGAIN??
So what's the problem? How do you stop something when you don't even know what it is?
I'm not so sure that I classify this as your "typical" bullying. It's more "negative reactions" to "bad actions".
People need to start figuring out what actions cause those negative reactions. These were "obvious" bad choices.
Imagine my concern over the "fair and balanced" opinions of you two...
And if there is a fine due to the Spelling Gestapo. enough-already...I hope you come around to collect it in person...
And why don't you bring "NOHATER" with you...?
I think they are more than fair.
I don't condone "stupid" any more than I condone bullying.
You know what the problem today is? No one "learns" from their mistakes, or others mistakes. No one takes responsibility for their own actions.
I read an article in the newspaper about a guy who drove drunk and was in a car accident. The guy was was hurt and his passenger died. What did I hear? Major sympathy for the driver because he was hurt and because his friend died. And absolutely NOTHING on the stupid act of driving drunk.
Like I said, I don't for one minute condone bullying, and I feel bad that she felt so bad she needed to kill herself. BUT, all this was preventable. She did things she should not have done, and nowadays, with all the crap that is going on, she should have known better. And this needs to be pointed out and EMPHASIZED, so other kids do learn. Along with the sympathy, you need to HAMMER HOME that there are consequences for all actions. Some are good, some are bad.
And as for "bullies", they have problems too. The chances are, their parents are bullies, or they are being abused.
There seems to be a huge problem today with kids. So many dying from either suicide, gunshot wounds (in America), or a parent's stupidity.
Actually, it all stems from a parent's stupidity. So many lousy parents out there now.
I've seen other comments from this so-called NOHATER that perhaps influenced my reaction ...whereas you just seemed to be making the point that you disagreed with me...a privilege I can neither dispute or begrudge you...
NOHATER (aka enough already) is a bully himself...and I derived ample pleasure from slapping around bullies for most of my life, having been a very large kid early on who boxed for NYC in the Golden Gloves and was studying martial arts in grade school a decade or so before there was a "Kung Fu" TV series...
None of which ever made me particularly tough and formidable...but bullies invariably reveal themselves to be cowards with big mouths...who would often grovel and humiliate themselves admirably without much undue pressure when they're stood up to and popped in the face once or twice...
It's being stood up to that does it to them...they have no idea what to do...having never even considered such an eventuallity
So I was able to show off a bit with minimal risk to myself... since they almost always punked out with little or no real physical encouragement...
But when they didn't...IT...WAS...SWELL!
Gee...does that make me a person who bullies bullies? That's what I was going for...
And as for your calling me stupid...I'm actually fairly bright
on the net, many dangers are facing our children, cyber bullying is one of those dangers. But despite the ever-increasing number of tragedies, laws that serve to counteract these obsessed is still insufficient, sometimes nonexistent unfortunately.
The vigilance of parents and their presence with their children are more than necessary, which is often not the case. children are neglected, left alone.
"au revoir"
That's TOO alone for any of us to endure for very long!
Those who inflicted this abuse on her probably feel little remorse or guilt...but more of a tingle...a thrill of at having such power over another, more vulnerable person...
You all know who you are...enjoy your karma...
You earned it!