Search the Community

I heard about this at work today, and have been left stunned........... Bullied Teen Amanda Todd's Death Under Investigation - ABC News Suicide of Amanda Todd - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia I have not linked to her video on YouTube.... I couldn't bring myself to watch it.... Teenager Documents Bullying and Abuse Before Her Death Canadian authorities are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of 15-year-old Amanda Todd, who made a heartbreaking video chronicling years of bullying in school and online, previous suicide attempts and humiliation that lasted up until her death. Authorities have opened a probe into her death and "anyone that had contact with her" before she died, police said. Todd posted the video called "My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm" on Sept. 7 and was found dead in her home town of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia on Oct. 10. Since her death, the video has been viewed more than 3 million times. In the video, Todd described using webcam chats to meet and talk to new people online as a seventh grade student, including a man who pressured her to flash her chest. One year later, she did and the man took a photo of her chest. Todd said that the man put the photo online and sent it to everyone she knew. Even after moving towns and schools multiple times, the man continued to follow her online and use her photo, she said. The photo and the bullying online and in school drove her to depression, drugs, alcohol, cutting and a suicide attempt with bleach. "I can never get that photo back," she wrote. "It's out there forever." ABC News Amanda Todd, 15, of Port Coquitlam, British... View Full Size Oklahoma Teen Shoots Himself at Junior High School Watch Video Teen Kills Herself After Being Bullied: Family Watch Video Bullying Suspected in N.Y. Teen's Suicide Watch Video Authorities would not comment specifically on whether they are searching for the man Amanda claimed was cyber-bullying her, but Royal Canadian Mounted Police Sgt. Peter Thiessen said, "We're following up on a wide variety of tips and information, without getting into detail." When asked if criminal charges could result from the investigation, Thiessen told ABCNews.com, "That would be dependent on the quality of the evidence we might get." Anonymous, an online hacking and activist group, posted the name and address of a British Columbia man in his 30's who they claim pressured Todd for the nude photo. Contact information for the man was not immediately available. The RCMP did not respond to requests for comment today regarding the Anonymous post. Authorities have not officially called the death a suicide, but Cpl. Jamie Chung of the Coquitlam Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement, "At this time it has been determined that the teen's death was not suspicious in nature and that foul play was not a factor." The nearly nine-minute, black and white video showed Todd silently telling her story through a series of white cards with black marker writing on them. She can only be seen from her nose down for most of the video, occasionally moving around so that her face is visible. "Hello, I've decided to tell you about my never ending story," the video begins. She described the events leading up to the photo of her chest and how she felt after the photo was posted online. "I then got really sick and got anxiety, major depression and panic disorders," she wrote. "I then moved and got into drugs and alcohol." She described being called names, eating lunch alone and resorting to cutting herself. She also told the story of an incident where she made a "huge mistake" and "hooked up" with a boy at her school who had a girlfriend, but who she believed really liked her. A week later, she said she received a text message telling her to get out of school and then a group of students, led by the boy's girlfriend, surrounded her at school and said, "Look around, nobody likes you." "A guy then yelled, 'Just punch her already,' so [the girlfriend] did," Todd wrote. "She threw me to the ground and punched me several times. Kids filmed it. I was all alone and left on the ground." Todd said she "wanted to die so bad" when her dad found her in a ditch. She drank bleach when she went home and had to be rushed to the hospital to have her stomach pumped, she said. "After I got home, all I saw was on Facebook--'She deserved it. Did you wash the mud out of your hair? I hope she's dead,'" she wrote. Todd moved to another school in another city, but said the torture followed her through Facebook. Students posted photos of ditches and suggested she try another bleach. "Every day, I think, why am I still here?" she asked towards the end of the video. "I'm stuck. What's left of me now? Nothing stops. I have nobody. I need someone. My name is Amanda Todd." Authorities were called to a residence in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, just before 6 p.m. on Oct. 10 to investigate the sudden death of the tormented teenager. Oklahoma Teen Shoots Himself at Junior High School Watch Video Teen Kills Herself After Being Bullied: Family Watch Video Bullying Suspected in N.Y. Teen's Suicide Watch Video Todd said in her video that she did not want to press charges against the girl who beat her up because she wanted to move on when she moved to another city and school. Cheryl Quinton, spokeswoman for the Coquitlam School District, told ABCNews.com, "The family was wanting to pass along that several supports were in place for their daughter on the school, home and community levels. There was a lot of intervention and a lot of support. I know that is the message that they want to convey." Quinton didn't get into specifics of the timeline, but emphasized that Todd's parents wanted people to know that "there was a lot of support for this student." Todd was in the tenth grade at the Coquitlam Alternate Basic Education School when she died. School officials would not release the name of her previous school. Quinton said the death has been "very devastating" to the small school where resources are being provided to students in regards to suicide prevention and bullying. "We typically, as a school district, don't talk about such deaths but with the family's endorsement we did choose to do so because it is important to point out the dangers associated with social media and cyber-bullying," Quinton said.