'Jessi Slaughter' YouTube Cyberbully Case: 11-Year-Old Tells GMA She Didn't Want it to Go This Far
NEW YORK (CBS) An 11-year-old girl from Florida known online as 'Jessi Slaughter' is at the center of a cyberbullying frenzy, after she posted online videos threatening to kill her own online tormentors.
However, the seventh grader's attempts to get her alleged harassers to back down failed miserably, fueling a viral spiral that features her own profanity-laced You Tube videos; these, in turn, have led to death threats and a psychological evaluation of her.
The young girl - whose real name is Jessica Leonhardt - told Good Morning America Thursday that the escalating bullying began with postings aimed at her, regarding her alleged sexual history. In response, she said she used her webcam merely as a way to vent.
In her initial rant, which lasts almost five minutes, Jessi tells "hater-b*****s" they are jealous of her, her boyfriend, and her life.
She tells her alleged bullies, "'I'm happy with my life okay? And if you can't, like, realize that and stop hating you know what? I'll pop a glock in your mouth and make a brain slushy."
Despite the harsh language, 'Jessi Slaughter' claims she never meant for it to go this far.
"It's just, I had no words running through my mind," she told GMA. "It was all done live and that was just a way to get out my anger."
State police are now investigating the alleged bullying and insisted 'Jessi' be sent to a mental heath facility because they believed she might be suicidal.
In an ironic twist, the 11-year-old told GMA at the end of her interview, "I think that's completely wrong that people would taunt people to some degree that they would actually kill themselves over it. And that's actually completely wrong and whoever is doing it should be locked away for a really long time."
'Jessi Slaughter' is currently undergoing counseling and said she just wants to be left alone.