Do you know this girl? Probably not. She has gotten quite a bit of attention since October 10, 2012 tho. Why? Well if you aren't aware, this girl felt she had no other way out, by committing suicide. The cause? Excessive bullying.
Even after changing schools multiple times it followed her.
Amanda Todd left a heart felt message on YouTube telling her story a month before she could no longer take it If you haven't seen the video here it is.
This video truly brought tears to my eyes.
The statistics are terrifying. It's estimated that 500,000 teenagers try to kill themselves every year, and about 5000 succeed. That's right up there with cancer and homicide.
I did not know Amanda Todd, yet I look at her and I can easily see any young adult that I come in contact with. Even my own children.
As a parent you want to protect your children. What can you do? You see your baby hurting and no matter what you just can't make the pain go away.
It is OUR job as parents to advocate for those that can not. To try to prevent this from happening to another child. It is our responsibility to teach our children to embrace each other's differences, and to not ridicule because of flaws and mistakes. Because quite honestly, even tho they are teens and think they have the world by the balls and know everything.... They do not! And they too will make mistakes.
Bullying is NEVER okay! Words hurt, they cut like a knife right through the soul, and the scars inflicted will always be there.
We need to make a change now before one of our own children become a victim. We need to advocate to stricter punishment in the schools. A ZERO bully policy. There need to be laws put in place with severe punishment. The warnings and slaps on the wrists just aren't cutting it anymore.
With Amanda Todd, I have noticed on her memorial page, that even tho she is no longer here, the bullying continues. I see these young people commenting that she deserved it because she showed her breast to a man. It was a man that she thought she could trust. She deserved it because she slept with another girls girlfriend. She was a child that made a mistake and paid the ultimate price because they just couldn't drop the issue. I see a lot of she is in Hell because she committed suicide. I for one do not believe that for a minute! When it is your time it is your time. That is the way that God brought her home. I have to believe that. I have seen first hand horrible suicide attempts gone wrong. Where the person should have died but didn't.
I am saddened and outraged.
Things need to change and they start here!
