[deathfun]

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Vancouver+area+teen+commits+suicide+after+telling+story+being+cyberbullied+with+video/7375941/story.html

Another heartwarming story to read when you wake up in the morning...
That's sarcasm by the way
And that's the paper I get every morning

Some people deserve to be shot or sent to the Bates Motel

[jr2]

I case any of you are too lazy to click:

The mother of a teenager who died Wednesday of suspected suicide wants her daughter’s anti-cyber-bullying video to be used to help other young people.

Fifteen-year-old Amanda Todd was found dead in a Port Coquitlam home at 6 p.m. Wednesday, five weeks after she posted a heartbreaking video on YouTube detailing how she was harassed online and bullied.

“I think the video should be shared and used as an anti-bullying tool. That is what my daughter would have wanted,” Carol Todd, Amanda’s mother, told The Vancouver Sun in a message on Twitter.

In September, Amanda posted a video to YouTube entitled My Story: Struggling, bullying, suicide and self harm.

In it Amanda does not speak, but instead holds up to the camera pieces of paper on which she has printed her story, one phrase at a time. She documents a painful tale of being harassed through Facebook and shunned at school, leaving her feeling alone and suicidal.

It started in Grade 8, when an embarrassing photo was circulated to her relatives, friends and schoolmates. Amanda switched schools, but the bullying continued.

“I can never get that photo back,” she writes.

Click here for more photos of Amanda Todd

Later, she was confronted by a group of teens in front of her new school and beaten up, an attack that was filmed. Despondent, Amanda went home and drank bleach.

Her harassers posted photos of bleach and commented that they wished she was dead.

Near the end of the video, she writes: “Every day I think why am I still here? ... I have nobody. I need someone.”

In a message accompanying the video post, Amanda added: “I’m not doing this (video) for attention. I’m doing this to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong.”

Premier Christy Clark posted a short video on YouTube Thursday sending her sympathies to Amanda’s family.

“I want to say to everyone who loved her, to all her family and friends, how sorry I am about her loss,” Clark — who spearheaded a ‘Pink Shirt Day’ anti-bullying campaign while she was a radio host — says in the video.

“No one deserves to be bullied. No one earns it. No one asks for it. It isn’t a rite of passage.

“Bullying has to stop.”

In 2008, the B.C. government declared an annual anti-bullying day, and Clark has advanced anti-bullying initiatives since becoming premier.

Amanda was a former cheerleader with the Vancouver All Stars squad based in her hometown of Port Coquitlam. She attended school there until the middle of Grade 8, when she moved to a Maple Ridge school. In February, she transferred to Coquitlam Alternate Basic Education (CABE) in Coquitlam.

Students and staff at Amanda’s school were grieving her death Thursday.

“It is a very sad case,” said Paul McNaughton, principal of CABE, where Amanda was in Grade 10.

“She was quite connected here. The staff and the students here are very much impacted. She had some very strong ties in the school and to staff in the school.

“I can tell you we feel we tried everything we could to help her when she came to us.”

In her video, Amanda says she moved schools in a futile attempt to escape her bullies.

Spokeswomen for the Maple Ridge and Coquitlam school districts would not discuss the case directly, but both said their districts take action when they receive bullying complaints.

Grief counsellors were speaking to students in both districts Thursday.

Dr. Tyler Black, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at B.C. Children’s Hospital, said the reasons people commit suicide are often very complex. He urged parents, educators and youth at risk of suicide to realize there is help through options such as www.youthinbc.com or 1-800-SUICIDE.

“The message is there are professionals there, there are people out there who can help.”

On a positive note, Black added, suicide among youth aged 10 to 24 dropped 25 per cent from 2000 to 2009.

Amanda joined YouTube on Sept. 6 and posted her video Sept. 7.

On Sept. 7, Amanda also uploaded a slide-show presentation called Cyber Bullying on Prezi.com, in which she gives advice on how to deal with such harassment.

In what could turn out to be her own very sad legacy, Amanda urged people to stand up to bullies and help victims:

“If you see that someone is being bullied, don’t be afraid to tell the bully to stop doing what they are doing. Make sure to tell them that it’s wrong and that they shouldn’t bully other kids.”

Amanda told parents “to always give your child emotional support” and to help them if they are being bullied.

B.C.’s education ministry announced last month that it will spend $2 million on a strategy called ERASE Bullying. The strategy includes a confidential online bullying reporting service that will allow students, school staff, parents and members of the public to make anonymous reports about potential or actual cases of school bullying and violence.

The Amanda Michelle Todd memorial Facebook page, created Wednesday morning, had more than 11,000 people “liking it” by early evening. Hundreds of people were also posting comments on the site.

“My thoughts and prayers go to her family, I cannot even begin to imagine what they are going through. High school is supposed to be the best time of your life, not one where you fear for yourself every day. No one should have to feel the way she did,” wrote Breanna Lockhart Collins. “She was a beautiful young girl who went way too soon.”

In a post on its Facebook page, G Force Gym — home of the Vancouver All Stars cheerleaders — wrote:

“Today we feel the loss of our former VAS family member Amanda ... I ask that we all watch her video and share her story so that her loss is not in vain. Allow this to be her legacy ... Allow us all to look around & find the next Amanda before another precious spunky teenager is lost.”

Amanda’s video echoed another similar online story entitled My Story: Suicide and Bullying, which had been uploaded by Mollydoyle18 on YouTube. Commenting on Amanda’s video, Molly posted Wednesday:

“Rest in peace and fly high to Amanda Todd. I was just messaging her about almost a week ago, and I just found out that she has taken her life. She was asking me about how to be an inspiration to others and to get her video more views, and now I have found out that she has passed away ... This is a terrible tragedy. I wish she could have had her happy ending.

With files from Mike Hager



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Port+Coquitlam+teen+driven+death+cyberbullying+with+video/7375941/story.html#ixzz294SGJjnC

[The E]

It started in Grade 8, when an embarrassing photo was circulated to her relatives, friends and schoolmates. Amanda switched schools, but the bullying continued.

“I can never get that photo back,” she writes.

Click here for more photos of Amanda Todd

Yay for automated markup of news articles, and lack of human oversight.

[jr2]

Err, no.  Those are snapshots from her video (where she is holding up her script); I checked that link out.  Unless it's pointing somewhere different now?

[jr2]

It started in Grade 8, when an embarrassing photo was circulated to her relatives, friends and schoolmates. Amanda switched schools, but the bullying continued.

“I can never get that photo back,” she writes.

Click here for more photos of Amanda Todd

Yay for automated markup of news articles, and lack of human oversight.

EDIT: Yeah.  It's the same thing as clicking on "Photos" in the Vancouver Sun article.

[The E]

Yes, I know, but the context is pretty misleading. If the link had been named "For a gallery of stills from that video, click here", and if it had been placed next to the section where that video is mentioned, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

As it is, the article talks about some embarassing pics of that woman, then links to a picture gallery with the words "For more pictures, click here". Tell me, what would you expect to see in that gallery?

My point is, whoever or whatever put that link in that place, with that description, didn't actually think it through. As I still have some faith in human nature (yeah, yeah, I am naive, I get it), I would rather believe it had been placed there by some algorithm.

[deathfun]

Yes, I know, but the context is pretty misleading. If the link had been named "For a gallery of stills from that video, click here", and if it had been placed next to the section where that video is mentioned, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

As it is, the article talks about some embarassing pics of that woman, then links to a picture gallery with the words "For more pictures, click here". Tell me, what would you expect to see in that gallery?

My point is, whoever or whatever put that link in that place, with that description, didn't actually think it through. As I still have some faith in human nature (yeah, yeah, I am naive, I get it), I would rather believe it had been placed there by some algorithm.

It's an algorithm. If you take a look at the article on the website itself as opposed to the quoted section jr2 provided, you'll notice that it repeats itself twice, and the "Click here for ways to get help if you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts" three times

[jr2]

Yeah I included that after checking the link 'cause I figured why not, it's a convenient way to read all of the script without watching the movie (I think, didn't check to be sure nothing was skipped)... however, you're right, it could be seen as if it were links to the embarrassing photos.  I should have thought more than twice for that one, sorry.

[StarSlayer]

Ah good ole' HLP GD, the article on a tragic case of cyber bullying doesn't even make it two posts past OP and changes to a discussion about hyperlinking.

[MP-Ryan]

Saw this yesterday and it makes me sick.  It's a failure in our education system and a failure of our police - where's the report of the extortionist being arrested for distribution of child pornography and extortion?  Where's the report of charges against the teens that assaulted her?  She lied and said it was her fault?  Bull****.  Police and school officials are supposed to lay charges in these sorts of assaults precisely for that reason.

The whole issue is just a disgusting failure of the people who should have been looking out for and protecting this girl.  And the Facebook tributes and YouTube comments by her classmates who stood by and did nothing are infuriating.

I was bullied in early high school.  As most people do, I got through it relatively unscathed but it certainly was a contributing factor in my decision to work in law enforcement - nobody deserves to go through life with the system that is supposed to protect us all constantly letting us down.

[The E]

Sorry for dragging this offtopic.

On-Topic:

When I was in school, I was repeatedly a victim of bullying. I am very glad that I haven't turned out to become a bully in response; nevertheless the experience left me scarred and not a little bit damaged.
I can not imagine how hard it is for kids in similar situations today, given how easy it is for bullies nowadays to haunt their intended victims far outside the immediate school context via social media.
And yes, I definitely do see a need for the people nominally in charge to start taking these things seriously. It's easy for me to separate insults to my online persona from my real self, but that's only the case because I grew up without an online presence. I imagine it's the same for most teachers and counsellors, being online isn't real to these people on a very fundamental level.

[Dragon]

Well, I've also been bullied (in the middle school), but I've taken a bit different approach to it. It's a good thing middle school lasts just 3 years around here, because I was seriously plotting murdering at least one of this vermin (and all of them, at one point...).

Personally, I'm pretty resilient, so instead of developing a depression, I coped by reducing such "people" to animals, about to the level of insects. A cat hissing at you isn't much of an insult, and if an insect was something similar (or just getting in your way), it'd get squished. It's a good thing we didn't had a gun in the house, because then, I could've actually gone through with it. The only reason I didn't was that I left that school before figuring out the best way to take a human out by surprise (they were bigger and stronger than me, as usual) using a hammer or an ax. Yes, I've got it down to instruments of murder, and I've had even more disturbing details down (I'm no longer considering it, so don't call the police, please ). Call it insane (so do I, in retrospect), but the reasoning seemed pretty logical back then.

It would've most likely been quite a black spot in my life, since police is somewhat more dedicated to tracking murderers than bullies, and saying the victim deserved it probably isn't a good defense. I'd still have a sort of twisted satisfaction if I heard a story about a nerdy, bullied kid snapping and killing the bullies instead of himself (and I really enjoy victims getting back at bullies in fiction). Maybe the resulting lawsuit would draw more attention than a notice about a suicide.

[Nuke]

someone tried bullying me. once. i wonder if he ever regained vision in his right eye. after that i had a reputation and hung out with the crazy black trenchcoat crowd (that was around the time of the columbine massacre). teachers used to overlook crap like that. these days it seems like if you fight back they expel your ass and the bully remains in play.

its also a completely different game these days, as theres this whole online social bull**** thing. that is just way out of the school's jurisdiction. the schools can only really stop bullying when it happens on school grounds. and that goes for anything online. all the schools can really do there is block those sites. it would probibly be better to give all the kids guns and a crash course in revenge. revenge is a real ego booster.

[JCDNWarrior]

I'm sorry to hear others have had such experiences. Sometimes I think public schools have become a training ground for predatory behavior so they can get those bullies into positions of power, authority or bureaucracy to continue what they have learned so they could follow orders and do jobs that no moral person would ever do. So much for a 'safe environment' for children to learn. Interesting how it all leads to a straightjacket of homogenization out of fear of being bullied so severely, as well as breeding cowardice and sheep-like behavior by those following the bullies.

Even worse, the whole cyberbully thing will be abused to push SOPA like bills instead of, you know, actually trying to fix the problem.

I'd like to put up the following video of the late George Carlin that I believe fits perfectly in this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMqJvhmD5Yg

"There's a reason education sucks, it's the same reason it'll never, ever, ever be fixed".
"You know what they want? They want obedient workers, obedient workers. People who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork and just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly ****tier jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime.."

[newman]

I experienced some bullying as a kid in elementary school. It went on for about two years before I got fed up with it enough to punch the ringleader in the face. I always thought if I did that, the other kids in his "group" would gang up on me. It turns out he just kept the spot where I punched him covered by his hand and giving me angry looks as his "gang" dispersed. The bullying, at least in this case, seemed like something terrible and insurmountable, but when confronted it turned out to be made of wet tissue paper. But I did have people to talk to and I didn't have facebook and other media like that that make it easy for people to harass you in every way even when they're not there.

Driving someone to suicide - that takes more than just someone yanking your chain every single day till you punch them in the face. It takes some effort, and should be treated the same as being an accomplice to murder. Proving this unequivocally in court would probably be problematic, though. Not a legal expert but if you bullied someone enough for that person to take their own life, you probably deserve to spend some happy jail time being romanced by the "sodomy sisters" guys from cell block D.

[Dragon]

someone tried bullying me. once. i wonder if he ever regained vision in his right eye. after that i had a reputation and hung out with the crazy black trenchcoat crowd (that was around the time of the columbine massacre). teachers used to overlook crap like that. these days it seems like if you fight back they expel your ass and the bully remains in play.

Serves him right. Shame you only took out one eye, or he'd be done with bullying for good. That's how vermin like that should be dealt with. Shame that authorities these days would most likely make life difficult for the defender, not for the bully. Wouldn't it be possible to fill a lawsuit if something like that happened though? I heard it's rather easy to sue somebody over such things in US.

I'm sorry to hear others have had such experiences. Sometimes I think public schools have become a training ground for predatory behavior so they can get those bullies into positions of power, authority or bureaucracy to continue what they have learned so they could follow orders and do jobs that no moral person would ever do. So much for a 'safe environment' for children to learn. Interesting how it all leads to a straightjacket of homogenization out of fear of being bullied so severely, as well as breeding cowardice and sheep-like behavior by those following the bullies.

This might very well be intentional, considering cowardish sheep are easy to rule, and easy to sell stuff to. Meaning it's very convenient for both government and corporations. I'm noticing that too in Poland, plus the exams that feel like brainwashing tests. They teach you to think in terms of an abstract and rather stupid test, and the tests themselves mostly check how well you learned to solve them. It's difficult not to sound like a conspiracy theorist at this point, but those are hard facts. Maybe at least some of those "conspiracy nuts" have a point... 

[Nuke]

i wouldn't call it a conspiracy. just the way things have always been. alphas run everything and everyone else just kinda goes with it, and anyone who doesn't and who cant best the alpha is an outcast. human society isn't really that different from that of apes, monkeys and other mammals. we've just replaced the top monkey with politicians and ceos.

[Dragon]

Actually, it's not that simple. If it was, the world would be much more efficient. A single ruler has potential to run things much more smoothly than a gathering of fools who can hardly agree on anything. On small scale, it still works like that (though with money replacing strength in many, but not all, cases), but on larger scale it's a mess. You can't even really say corporations rule the world, because who is a "corporation"? The owners? The board of directors? The decision-making process in big corporations is so mind-boggingly complex that I don't think anybody consciously controls all this. Really, having the Illuminati run the world would make much more sense if it wasn't for the fact their name means "enlightened", while whoever runs the world is clearly a either a blind idiot or a random generator, more likely the former, because a random generator would occasionally do something sensible.[/rant]

Anyway, I don't know how it's in US, but in Poland, schools are biased towards teaching obedience to a suspicious level. It's subtle enough to be difficult to notice, but pretty much omnipresent.

[Mikes]

Indeed, organisational theory has long well documented  the limits of what a single person can manage.

There is no "alpha" in charge.

... and one of the most common reason of quickly expanding companies running headfirst into a wall and finding a quick demise is a strong willed CEO that was unable to delegate responsibility as the whole thing got too big for a single person to efficiently manage.

Also, intriguingly... at the opposite end of the spectrum an alpha male is the inferior choice as well. Ultrasmall companies are in fact much more efficiently managed by a having no central figure in charge and employing a equality/group based decision making process. I.e. With 5-10 people it's still possible to discuss it with everyone in person and letting the best argument decide.

[jr2]

Alphas can lead Alphas if sub-Alphas (Betas?) are also willing to follow, however.  So you could have a single Alpha as long as they didn't micro-manage and just did their job (leading the other leaders as they needed it).