Cyber-bullying claimed a 12-year-old Florida girl's life after she was harassed by nearly 15 girls for over one and a half year.
Rebecca Ann Sedwick, a seventh grader at Crystal Lake Middle School, committed suicide by jumping from an abandoned industrial cement facility in Lakeland, located half a mile from her home. According to the investigators, more than a dozen girls harassed her through various social networking websites.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Rebecca was "absolutely terrorized" by her peers. "We can see from what we've been investigating so far that Rebecca wasn't attacking back," Judd said. "She appeared to be beat down. She appeared to have a defeatist attitude. And quite frankly, the entire investigating is exceptionally disturbing."
Rebecca was a victim of spiteful online messages such as "You should die" and "Why don't you go kill yourself."
Tricia Norman, mother of the deceased girl, said last December she saw cuts on wrists of Rebecca and realized she was bullied. Rebecca was taken to hospital after the incident and underwent counseling. However, the bullying did not stop.
Following this, Tricia decided to home school her daughter for the rest of the year and then changed to a new school, Lawton Chiles Middle Academy. However, this did not help the young girl as she was cyber stalked continuously and received messages such as "You're ugly," "Go kill yourself," and "Why are you still alive."
The mother had no clue about the bullying being continued. "She put on a perfect, happy face, she never told me," Tricia told The Ledger. "I never had a clue. I mean, she told me last year when she was being bullied but not this year and I have no idea why."
Unable to bear the torture, Rebecca changed her screen name to "That Dead Girl," after which she decided to end her life.
The investigators found that Rebecca queried online with questions such as "What is overweight for a 13-year-old girl," "How to get blades out of razors?" and "How many over-the-counter drugs do you take to die?" She also changed her screensaver to a picture of her head on a railroad track, reported the Examiner.
"I don't know what I'm doing," Tricia said. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do next. I just lost my world. My life is just never going to be the same; I'm missing a big part of it, a huge part of it," Tricia said.
The investigators have started a probe into the matter and have seized cell phones and computers of the girls involved in the act. Charges will be brought against the 15 girls if enough evidence is collected.
According to the Associated Press, legal experts said that bringing charges against someone accused in abetment of suicide is judicially difficult to assess.
