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Teenage Girls Charged with Felony for Bullying Suicide Victim

DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs

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Two Florida girls, one 12 and one 14, have been charged with aggravated stalking, a third-degree felony, for allegedly bullying a girl who committed suicide five weeks ago. Police decided to arrest the kids after the older one posted this onto her Facebook page on Saturday: "Yes, I bullied Rebecca and she killed herself and I don’t give a ****."

The New York Times reports that 12-year-old Rebecca Ann Sedwick, who leapt from a factory tower last month, had suffered harassment for over a year due to an argument over a boy. The 14-year-old was apparently upset that Sedwick had once dated her boyfriend, and so she allegedly began a campaign of bullying that included physical altercations, online attacks, and efforts to turn her friends against her.

The Times writes that Rebecca eventually began cutting herself, at which point Sedwick's mother pulled her out of her old middle school and sent her to get psychiatric care. Sedwick then enrolled in a different school. Nevertheless, she continued getting messages online telling her to kill herself and "drink bleach." (For her part, the older girl who was arrested after posting to Facebook that she bullied Sedwick told police that her account was hacked.)

Some people expressed shock at the Polk County Sheriff's Department's decision to arrest the girls, but Sheriff Grady Judd said today that the older girl's Facebook message "forced this arrest."

Mr. Judd said he was stunned by the older girl’s actions. He reserved his harshest words for her parents for failing to monitor her behavior and for allowing her to keep her phone. The girls already had been questioned by the police over the suicide.

“I’m aggravated that the parents are not doing what parents should do: after she is questioned and involved in this, why does she even have a device?” Sheriff Judd said. He added, “Parents, who instead of taking that device and smashing it into a thousand pieces in front of that child, say her account was hacked.”
Neither girl who was arrested has a record, and police say they're likely to face no juvenile detention time if convicted.

Glad to see something being done about bullies that push teens to suicide, I'm just very surprised to see this in my Polk county FL where I grew up. Sheriff Judd is a complete right wing nutball. In any case these girls deserve to be punished and I'm glad a precedent is being set to hopefully show others that it's not worth bullying people
 
This is truly sad but there has always been bullying...I just don't see why more of these kids are committing suicide. I don't know if it's the parents' fault as well or social media's fault (on top of the bullies). But, there has to be another factor in play for all these kids killing themselves over bullying. Just look at A Christmas Story...some of these kids in Ralphie's position would kill themselves today for having a bully torment them. Now kids can bully over the internet as well. I can't help to think that some of this lies at the feet of the parents of the kids that kill themselves for feeling unloved and worthless. Truly sad.

Also, I know the parents of the bullies that do these acts are truly awful parents regardless of anything.
 
Really sad that this happened. Glad to see that they're getting charged, bullies should start getting charged. I think the main problem is bullies typically get off very light or with just a pat on the hand by a teacher then sent on their way when these are very serious adult charges and crimes sometimes. And while yeah, they are still kids and teenagers - I'm pretty sure we all knew right from wrong at that young age to know that picking on others is wrong.

Adding, reading the article I would personally give these girls a much harsher penalty - third degree / assisted murder or something more along those lines. They were pushing her to kill herself, they wanted her to die, and in the end she took her life. Only sociopaths, and yeah many bullies these days are sociopaths would do this:

Nevertheless, she continued getting messages online telling her to kill herself and "drink bleach."

At 10, we know that that's wrong.
 
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I hope they lock them away for some good long time. Forever would be an ideal that I'm afraid won't be happening.
 
Police decided to arrest the kids after the older one posted this onto her Facebook page on Saturday: "Yes, I bullied Rebecca and she killed herself and I don’t give a ****."
I bet you'll give a **** now.

*****.
 
This is truly sad but there has always been bullying...I just don't see why more of these kids are committing suicide. I don't know if it's the parents' fault as well or social media's fault (on top of the bullies). But, there has to be another factor in play for all these kids killing themselves over bullying. Just look at A Christmas Story...some of these kids in Ralphie's position would kill themselves today for having a bully torment them. Now kids can bully over the internet as well. I can't help to think that some of this lies at the feet of the parents of the kids that kill themselves for feeling unloved and worthless. Truly sad.

Yeah, but the bullies in A Christmas Story are child's play compared to the viciousness of today's bullies.
 
I can't wait to see these girls in 10 years, guilt is quite a debilitating thing.
 
They can pretend that they don't care now. But this is going to stick with them for the rest of their lives. Wither they feel guilt or not they won't be able to escape this, ever.
 
This is truly sad but there has always been bullying...I just don't see why more of these kids are committing suicide. I don't know if it's the parents' fault as well or social media's fault (on top of the bullies). But, there has to be another factor in play for all these kids killing themselves over bullying. Just look at A Christmas Story...some of these kids in Ralphie's position would kill themselves today for having a bully torment them. Now kids can bully over the internet as well. I can't help to think that some of this lies at the feet of the parents of the kids that kill themselves for feeling unloved and worthless. Truly sad.

Also, I know the parents of the bullies that do these acts are truly awful parents regardless of anything.

fast forward to now and Ralphie would have brought a gun into the school. and i'm not talking red ryder.
 
Ya I remember being bullied at school when I was in 7th grade, it just made me never want to go to school. I would come up with any excuse to stay home and I never talked to my parents about it. I can't imagine now with social media and cell phones, it is just relentless and vicious. I think a lot of people don't think it's as big a problem as it is because they can't relate to the onslaught that these children go through these days
 
Honestly, I think it is a reach. Bullying is bullying. Everyone is bullied. Everyone is a bully. Charging teenage girls and potentially destroying more lives is simply using the government's resources to bully children who are likely victims themselves. It is a typical overreaction from the P.C. police. These children need counseling, not a courtroom.
 
There's a difference between calling a person a name (not really, but I wouldn't insist on putting those kids behind bars) and the level these bullies take it to these days. Somehow my tormentors in high school were able to find out where I'd be and when I would be there - it was a big school, believe me I hid - they still found out. So, Matt I'd have to say you are living in the past.

How would you react to an adult stalking another adult and constantly telling them to kill themselves? And probably, from the sounds of it, with the motive of wanting to push you to actually going ahead with it. Not to mention these girls reactions to getting what they wanted was basically 'yippie, I'm glad' - these girls are deranged sociopaths. They're no different from someone who takes a gun to school in my eyes - in fact, I'd say that these girls are the kind that push those kids into it.

These girls are killers. Just the type that don't need a weapon - they push somebody into taking their life or into taking others, perhaps even their own. And the very fact that they showed absolutely no remorse further goes to prove how psychotic they are. They knew what they were doing and they're happy that she's dead - if these girls were adults you'd have no problem calling them psychotic.
 
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Honestly, I think it is a reach. Bullying is bullying. Everyone is bullied. Everyone is a bully. Charging teenage girls and potentially destroying more lives is simply using the government's resources to bully children who are likely victims themselves. It is a typical overreaction from the P.C. police. These children need counseling, not a courtroom.

Protecting more lives from these two should be more important than treating this couple of girls like victims of society.
 
Do you know why it's worse now? The internet. Social media. There is literally no escape from it. 10-15 years ago it wouldn't have been as bad. The internet was still in its infancy and internet bullying was not the behemoth it is today. 20 years ago, it was not this bad. Thinking back to when you were a kid pre-2000 is just not the same as it is now.

You didn't have constant, unending harassment, you didn't have complete strangers egging on the bullying and doing it themselves. There weren't random people telling you to kill yourself. That is today's reality.
 
The computer has an off switch. It does make it easier though. That's why I think parents are failing here by letting their kids be plugged in 24/7.
 
The simple answer is an off switch? Like so many things in life the simple answer is the wrong answer. Everything is tied to the internet now. Making simplistic "turn the computer off" solutions is avoiding the original problem to begin with which is the lack of humanity fostered by that kind of attitude of if you don't like it then leave.
 
Even if it wasn't electronic, you're forced everyday to go to a place where: people love making your life a living hell, very few teachers do anything and some even encourage them, when you stand up to them you're reprimanded, when you turn them in all that happens is a slight slap on the wrist for them because the faculty doesn't care and the kid continues it the very next day (hell, you can turn them in five times and still NOTHING happens). And if you're a guy there's a level of shame involved that prevents you from going to your parents as well as the fear that if the school couldn't do anything that they wouldn't either and things would just escalate. It's these feelings of isolation that leads these kids into thinking there are only two ways out and they both typically end in death/s.

Basically saying - it's not just a technological issue.

Here it is because of changing schools, but a student shouldn't be pushed to that place period. Without the internet - they shoved her into self-harming, it's not a stretch to see where else they could have went if she stayed.
 
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Yeah, but the bullies in A Christmas Story are child's play compared to the viciousness of today's bullies.

There's various degrees. Back in my school was bullied mostly by being called names and made to feel inferior. I never received death threats like in the documentary I recently saw in bullying. This was all before social media, where some kids may go for escape and find the opposite.
 
The computer has an off switch. It does make it easier though. That's why I think parents are failing here by letting their kids be plugged in 24/7.

You are completely out of touch with how the kids of today do things. Social media and their cell phones are their life blood. They stay connected and by forcing them to not do that is like your parents not letting you go to the movies back in the day. Things have changed greatly even for folks like ourselves who don't feel old but most teens and tweens consider us dinosaurs.

Think back to how you felt as a teen, did you feel like your parents GOT you and your friends and interest? I know I didn't. In the words of Weezer the world has turned and left me here.
 
This is the song that I relate to bullying and where I got to (and this was 2002-2006 period):



Is it any wonder why I'm scared,
If I was a little younger would I
care,
feeling like the walls are growing stronger,
I don't know if this cage can hold me any longer

you never dreamed you'd have to live your life so guarded,
cause they'll find a way to make you feel discarded

I'm not afraid of tomorrow,
I'm only scared of myself,
feels like my insides are on fire, and I'm looking through the eyes of someone else

I never thought they'd want me to go even faster,
never thought I took my foot off the gas,
everybody loves to be in on the pressure,
but I know they're all waiting for the crash

you never dreamed you'd have to live your life so guarded,
cause they'll find a way to make you feel discarded,
things have changed you've become a complication,
can make it through another days
humiliation

I'm not afraid of tomorrow,
I only scared of myself,
feels like my insides are on fire and I'm looking through the eyes of someoneelse

someone else...

is it any wonder why the answer keeps me petrified,
is it any wonder why,
I'm scared.....

And I'm pretty sure there's tons of bullied teens today who still relate to that song. I was doing a college project and had teens in it and found that they were listening to the same angst songs that I did back in the day. And this was just without technology - so I'm not surprised that it has went a lot younger or seeming to sadly. And the year that bullies became killers was in 1995, I'm unsure about before then - but that's at least a possible starting date to the effects bullying has.
 
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Bullies have been killers since there have been bullies. It's only now that we hear about them more often (right around the time mass media and the internet took off).
 
You are completely out of touch with how the kids of today do things. Social media and their cell phones are their life blood. They stay connected and by forcing them to not do that is like your parents not letting you go to the movies back in the day. Things have changed greatly even for folks like ourselves who don't feel old but most teens and tweens consider us dinosaurs.

Think back to how you felt as a teen, did you feel like your parents GOT you and your friends and interest? I know I didn't. In the words of Weezer the world has turned and left me here.
If a bully was always at the movies telling me to kill myself then I could see your point. Do you make the kid angry at you by taking away Facebook for their good or do you enable them which led to this girl's suicide? I can't say I know for sure but I bet most of this stemmed from online and if that wasn't a factor then she may have not been barraged 24/7 which led to her suicide as school bullies have been a factor for centuries now.
 
And now bullies are 24/7. We didn't have the internet for centuries and we can't live without it now.
 
Chaseter, you're missing that they led the girl into self-harming. I don't think it's far to reason that if she had stayed in that school this similarly would have been the outcome (maybe even sadly sooner). Her changing schools was a preventative measure to try to have things get better.

And Teelie, that sounds about right - when Columbine happened that was 1999 and that was the first big event (?) that shook the nation in regards to the disastrous effects bullying can lead to. And that is around the same time as the technological rise. And this all happened BEFORE this technology hooked kids together 24/7 - so, while technology does play a role, it's the environment.
 
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If a bully was always at the movies telling me to kill myself then I could see your point. Do you make the kid angry at you by taking away Facebook for their good or do you enable them which led to this girl's suicide? I can't say I know for sure but I bet most of this stemmed from online and if that wasn't a factor then she may have not been barraged 24/7 which led to her suicide as school bullies have been a factor for centuries now.

You keep acting like all they ahve to do is take away their computers. All the kids these days have smartphones and stay logged into Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, etc. That's where kids get their social validation and are able to stay in contact with the friends that do care.

What are they supposed to do? Change their number every week? Make a new profile for every social media account? Block people and then have new accounts harass them and strangers? You don't seem to understand the grand scope that this all entails. If they don't have these social outlets then it's just like their parents grounding them forever for something that is being done to themselves. And for the most part I'm willing to bet the parents didn't realize the extent of how far it was being taken.

Most kids just delete the stuff they don't like so if the parent is monitoring the accounts 24/7 they are going to miss it.

Do you have kids right now Chaster?
 

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