Teen who posted video about cyberbullying commits suicide
Amanda Todd, 15, of Canada, killed herself one month after she posted the heartbreaking YouTube video, which details her experience being bullied and tormented, after a topless photo she shared with someone in an Internet chatroom surfaced at school.
She couldn’t take it anymore.
A Canadian teenager who was bullied and tormented online by classmates --- and who described her ordeal in a heartbreaking YouTube video --- killed herself a month after she posted it on the web.
Amanda Todd died Wednesday. She was just 15.
But Amanda's mom doesn’t want the video — which explains how a photo of her topless daughter sparked the cyberbullying — to go away.
BULLYING EYED AS TRIGGER IN TEEN'S SUICIDE
“I think the video should be shared and used as anti-bullying tool,” Carol Todd told The Vancouver Sun.
“That is what my daughter would have wanted.”
BULLIED TEEN VOTED TO HOMECOMING AS PRANK
She posted the video online Sept. 7. It's not known how she killed herself on Wednesday.
The Vancouver-area teen tells her sad story in a slide show of short phrases printed on flashcards. It began when she was chatting online with someone who urged her to take her top off and expose her breasts. Amanda eventually gave into the stranger’s request.
A year later, the photo came back to haunt her, when it surfaced at school.
“Then nobody liked me,” one of the cards read. “I can never get that photo back.”
Amanda says she was mercilessly bullied, forced to change schools and eventually got into drugs and alcohol and began to cut herself. A peer made the photo of her breasts his Facebook profile photo. Another student punched her. Amanda tried to kill herself by drinking bleach, but was rushed to the hospital and survived.
Peers learned about that, too — and mocked the botched suicide attempt by posting pictures of bleach containers online, and tagging Amanda in the photos.
“She should try a different bleach,” one student wrote on Facebook, according to Amanda’s story. “I hope she dies this time and isn’t so stupid.”
Amanda was in the 10th grade at Coquitlam Alternate Basic Education in Coquitlam, near Vancouver.
The school was aware of the YouTube video before Amanda’s suicide and had “support in place,” according to Cheryl Quinton, a spokeswoman for the district.
Quinton described the alternative school as a “close-knit community” with only 200 students. Grief counseling is being provided.
“Bullying is a concern in every district,” Quinton said. “The element of social media, it adds a different element of danger. We’re [working to] continue the dialogue to heighten awareness of cyberbullying.”
rmurray@nydailynews.com
Amanda Todd, 15, of Canada, killed herself one month after she posted the heartbreaking YouTube video, which details her experience being bullied and tormented, after a topless photo she shared with someone in an Internet chatroom surfaced at school.
She couldn’t take it anymore.
A Canadian teenager who was bullied and tormented online by classmates --- and who described her ordeal in a heartbreaking YouTube video --- killed herself a month after she posted it on the web.
Amanda Todd died Wednesday. She was just 15.
But Amanda's mom doesn’t want the video — which explains how a photo of her topless daughter sparked the cyberbullying — to go away.
BULLYING EYED AS TRIGGER IN TEEN'S SUICIDE
“I think the video should be shared and used as anti-bullying tool,” Carol Todd told The Vancouver Sun.
“That is what my daughter would have wanted.”
BULLIED TEEN VOTED TO HOMECOMING AS PRANK
She posted the video online Sept. 7. It's not known how she killed herself on Wednesday.
The Vancouver-area teen tells her sad story in a slide show of short phrases printed on flashcards. It began when she was chatting online with someone who urged her to take her top off and expose her breasts. Amanda eventually gave into the stranger’s request.
A year later, the photo came back to haunt her, when it surfaced at school.
“Then nobody liked me,” one of the cards read. “I can never get that photo back.”
Amanda says she was mercilessly bullied, forced to change schools and eventually got into drugs and alcohol and began to cut herself. A peer made the photo of her breasts his Facebook profile photo. Another student punched her. Amanda tried to kill herself by drinking bleach, but was rushed to the hospital and survived.
Peers learned about that, too — and mocked the botched suicide attempt by posting pictures of bleach containers online, and tagging Amanda in the photos.
“She should try a different bleach,” one student wrote on Facebook, according to Amanda’s story. “I hope she dies this time and isn’t so stupid.”
Amanda was in the 10th grade at Coquitlam Alternate Basic Education in Coquitlam, near Vancouver.
The school was aware of the YouTube video before Amanda’s suicide and had “support in place,” according to Cheryl Quinton, a spokeswoman for the district.
Quinton described the alternative school as a “close-knit community” with only 200 students. Grief counseling is being provided.
“Bullying is a concern in every district,” Quinton said. “The element of social media, it adds a different element of danger. We’re [working to] continue the dialogue to heighten awareness of cyberbullying.”
rmurray@nydailynews.com
