Hacker activist group Anonymous says it has identified the man who tried
to blackmail Amanda Todd, 15, by publicising revealing photos of her. Todd
apparently committed suicide after posting a video describing years of being
bullied over the photos.
Canadians were shocked, angered and saddened after learning the fate of
a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was found dead, an apparent suicide, five weeks
after she uploaded a video to YouTube describing years of bullying that drove
her to drugs and alcohol. Coroner Barb McLintock said Thursday night that
preliminary indications suggest the British Columbia girl, Amanda Todd, killed
herself. Her school district’s spokeswoman, Cheryl Quinton, confirmed the girl
in the video was her.
In the 9-minute video posted on Sept. 7, the 10th-grader and cheerleader
didn’t speak but told her story in haunting detail in a series of handwritten
notes that she held up to the camera. She said she was lured by a stranger to
expose her breasts on a webcam and the picture ended up on a Facebook page made
by the stranger, to which her friends were added. She wrote of being plunged
into anxiety, depression, drugs and alcohol. She said she changed schools but
an encounter with another girl’s boyfriend started the bullying again, which
this time escalated into a physical attack in which she said she was beaten.
When she got home, she wrote, she drank bleach. “It killed me inside and
I thought I actually was going to die.” She was rushed to a hospital to flush
out the bleach. More anxiety, cutting and overdosing followed, her struggles
with anxiety and cutting herself got worse, and despite counseling and
antidepressants, she was rushed to hospital again after an overdose. The last
cards said simply: “I have nobody. I need someone. My name is Amanda Todd.” Beneath
the video, Todd posted a note saying she produced it not for attention, but “to
be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong.” “Everyone’s future will be
bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I’m still here, aren’t I?”
Coroner McClintock said she died in her home Wednesday. Her office
released no other details. Her family could not be reached by phone. The
Coquitlam Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the family is not prepared to
speak publicly and have asked that their privacy be respected. The girl’s death
was headline news nationally Friday, with (hash) RIP Amanda trending across
Twitter and the Amanda Michelle Todd memorial Facebook page garnering more than
30,000 “likes.”
Cyber-bullying experts and criminologists suggested laws be strengthened
to allow police to trace cyber bullies through the Internet. British Premier
Christy Clark posted a video on YouTube deploring the tragedy. Bullying “isn’t
a rite of passage,” she said. “Bullying has to stop.” The British Columbia gym
where Amanda was a cheerleader posted a statement on its Facebook page. “I ask
that we all watch her video and share her story so that her loss is not in
vain,” the statement read. “Allow this to be her legacy. Allow us to all look
around and find the next Amanda before another precious spunky teenager is
lost.” Shock, sadness and recriminations poured out on a Facebook page devoted
to her, with one signatory accusing others of having participated in the
bullying.
Irena Pochop, communications manager for the Maple Ridge and Pitt
Meadows school district east of Vancouver, confirmed Amanda was enrolled in the
district and had changed schools this year. She would not address the girl’s
specific case but said the district had a detailed system in place to protect
victims.
France24
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