Bullied 10-year old commits suicide (another one)

[Ada]

Just saw this tonight. I'm still crying. Poor little thing

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/10390079/

Chadbourn, N.C. — Columbus County authorities are investigating the death of a 10-year-old girl who hanged herself Monday night after repeatedly being bullied at school.

Samantha West said she found her daughter, Jasmine McClain, dead in her bedroom Monday night.

"I just lost it because she took her last breath in my arms," West said Wednesday. "She was a loving child. I just don't understand."

More at link

 

[coopzoo]

Absolutely heartbreaking. This has to stop.

 

[HMSHood]

A 10 year old committing suicide is really rare. That is horrible. We are hearing more of these cases especially in light of Megan Meier and Phoebe Prince.

 

[flipflop]

Chadbourn Police Chief Steven Shaw said her death was obviously suicide, and he was about to close the case when he started checking posts on Facebook and other social media about Jasmine and her death."Children started coming forward and making accusations that she was bullied – and bullied bad – in school," Shaw said.

This statement does not say for sure that Jasmine had a facebook account, but from them stating that "children" started coming forward, I take it that "children" would be her peers who are on FB.

Social media is used for the wrong reasons many times in this day and age.

I teach in an elementary school. The cyber bullying is the worst. Everyone seems to be on facebook after school and in the evening. It all starts by someone making a rude comment on someones page with several more adding to the comment. When they get together at recess time at school the issue from online seems to carry over during school time. As a teacher this is really hard to keep up with, as we do not have the kids as friends on facebook, so we do not see what is being said and who is being attacked online. We hear about it once an incident explodes at school. We have our local police dept in to talk about the effects of cyber bullying and bullying in general with our students. We have had a father (who had a child commit suicide due to being bullied) come in to talk during an assembly. We educate the students as much as possible on the effects of bullying. Education is the key, but how far do we go????? What else should we do? It seems that as of lately, everytime I turn on the news another child has taken his/her life due to this matter. It is a sad sad world out there.

 

[Melanie]

This is so sad. If anything, talk to your kids tonight about the dangers of bullying. I watch my high school son and am amazed at all the on-line bullying that goes on. It's horrific. Yes, I monitor his FB and if I see the slightest hint of bullying, I follow up on it with the child or the parent. Nope, I"m not afraid, and the kids know I mean bidness.

Yes, I'm a tough mom - I have to be. Forget peer pressure, get involved, and teach these kids that bullying can and does lead to death.

Rest in peace Jasmine -- this didn't have to happen.

Mel

 

[Melanie]

At 10 she shouldn't have a FB page. Does anyone know if she had one? My son didn't have one until 13 and it's monitored v-e-r-y closely.

Mel

 

[flipflop]

At 10 she shouldn't have a FB page. Does anyone know if she had one? My son didn't have one until 13 and it's monitored v-e-r-y closely.

Mel

I agree, but was very shocked at how many at my school do. At the age of 10 it is supposedly cool to have a facebook account. I too would like to know if she had an account.

One mother at my school had an awesome idea...she has 3 girls aged 9, 10, 11. They all begged to have a facebook account. The mom talked to other parents, as her 3 girls all said that "all their friends have one". It ended up...most of them did have an account. This mom had not experienced facebook before, so she went online and found out what it was all about. She caved and allowed them to go on facebook. Seeing that the family only has one computer in the house, she made only one facebook account. The name she gave it was "THE SMITH FAMILY" (this was not the name, but you get the idea) That way the mom, the dad and each of the girls add friends to this one account....no bullying takes place with this account, as all the kids know that Mama bear is on it as well. Mom is able to see what they post on other walls and what is being posted on their own.

 

[Cazzie]

Rest In Peace, Jasmine. :rose:

Blessings to her family and friends. :heart:

Just shakin' my head...no words...this should not have happened.

 

[Wholehearted]

This one just breaks my heart. How does a 10 year old even think of how to commit suicide? To think of much she must have been suffering, to do this. . .It's a good reminder to all of us parents to take kids seriously when they try to reach out. If only her mother had understood the severity of what Jasmine was trying to tell her about being bullied, and wanting to be homeschooled. It just kills you when you see a child's death like this that could have so easily been prevented.

 

[Melanie]

This one just breaks my heart. How does a 10 year old even think of how to commit suicide? To think of much she must have been suffering, to do this. . .It's a good reminder to all of us parents to take kids seriously when they try to reach out. If only her mother had understood the severity of what Jasmine was trying to tell her about being bullied, and wanting to be homeschooled. It just kills you when you see a child's death like this that could have so easily been prevented.

I can't comprehend it. To think it is one thing...to carry it out is another. How did this child learn how to even do this? Internet? Other family members (experience)? She's only in the 4th/5th grade right? And there's rumblings on the internet that this was a gender identity issue (LGBT)?? 10 years old??

My head is spinning. No child should have to think about such issues, let alone have to try to deal with them.

MOO

Mel

 

[Allusonz]

OMG not another one.

My daughter has been the target of much bullying from a very young age. It did not matter whether we were in a park, playgrounds, and other social settings.

The problem I found starting around 1 year of age was not the children in the playground it was the parents of those children. The children were curious. They would ask simple questions like why is your leg different. I would answer them and they would be satisfied and run off to play. The issues I had were the parents that came up to me and said keep your daughter away from my child. I was shocked and sickened to the bottom of my soul. Once school started the kids thought it was funny to trip her inbetween classes and of course her prosthetic would pop off and these kids would laugh. Thus I started doing in school sessions to help the kids understand that we are all different whether it is our hair colour, eye colour, height etc. That did help somewhat but the issue still seemed to be the parents not understanding thus we started to include the parents in these sessions.

Her gender identity issues were even worse and those were not understood by many including but not limited to teachers, support staff, parents or kids. I do agree the internet is playing a huge roll but I know from experience that it is not just the internet.

I have so much more I could state on this but it would take more time than I have for all of this and there is a thread in the parking lot regarding this.

R.I.P. little angel

 

[HMSHood]

I know there is a correlation with bullying and criminal behavior. I wonder if there is a correlation between bullying and rapist and pedophiles. They are motivated by control and power like a bully.

 

[Wholehearted]

This one just breaks my heart. How does a 10 year old even think of how to commit suicide? To think of much she must have been suffering, to do this. . .It's a good reminder to all of us parents to take kids seriously when they try to reach out. If only her mother had understood the severity of what Jasmine was trying to tell her about being bullied, and wanting to be homeschooled. It just kills you when you see a child's death like this that could have so easily been prevented.

I just realized in my post that I confused two different ten year old girls who've hung themselves in the space of a week and a half. There's Jasmine McClain, who killed herself a few days ago, and Ashlynn Connor, who killed herself last week. Bullying has been going on for ever, but since when have elementary school kids been killing themselves over it? I don't know what it means, but it seems like despite all the focus on preventing bullying that happening in the media, etc., nothing is improving.

It seems like Facebook, etc., has made it horrifically worse. Why isn't it possible to turn off the computer, take the child away from the school environment of bullying, and figure out a situation where the child doesn't have to be tormented? I know hindsight is 20/20, but it's so preventable, it kills me.

 

[kjev]

I will be following this case. I am just shocked by the age and that she knew how to!

 

[kjev]

http://blueshelled.com/2011/11/14/10-year-old-ashlynn-conner-commits-suicide/

You just have to love someone's judgemental blog that doesn't know all the facts!

 

[Ada Wong]

How does a 10 year old even think of how to commit suicide?

I am just shocked by the age and that she knew how to!

Because there have been a couple mentions of shock at a ten year old knowing how to hang themselves, I think it's important to mention that most people of that age have probably seen photographs or drawings of people executed by hanging.

For example, there is a very widely disseminated photograph showing the execution of those who participated in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. That image is featured in a lot of history books, it's frequently shown in television shows about Lincoln, and the execution itself has been widely written about. It's likely that hanging is known to nearly every grade school student who has ever studied the American Civil War or the Lincoln presidency. There are doubtless many other sources for this sort of knowledge.

Beyond that, hanging requires very little in terms of materials or knowledge. Unfortunately, that works to make sure it's very simple and very common.

 

[Wholehearted]

Because there have been a couple mentions of shock at a ten year old knowing how to hang themselves, I think it's important to mention that most people of that age have probably seen photographs or drawings of people executed by hanging.

For example, there is a very widely disseminated photograph showing the execution of those who participated in the conspiracy to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. That image is featured in a lot of history books, it's frequently shown in television shows about Lincoln, and the execution itself has been widely written about. It's likely that hanging is known to nearly every grade school student who has ever studied the American Civil War or the Lincoln presidency. There are doubtless many other sources for this sort of knowledge.

Beyond that, hanging requires very little in terms of materials or knowledge. Unfortunately, that works to make sure it's very simple and very common.

I agree that every grade school student is aware of the concept of hanging. But, as a child who was seriously bullied around the age of these girls, I know that I wouldn't have been able to put together the pieces (thank god) to hang myself. What do you use to do hang yourself? Where do you put the rope/bed sheet/whatever once you've found it?

I really do think that having access to the internet makes it easier to figure out the steps involved in hanging yourself. Simply seeing a picture in history class doesn't translate to that information. To a grown up, I think it seems obvious to figure out how to hang yourself. But I think children need more information.

 

[Guinevere]

Just Sad Sad Sad. What a beautiful little girl.

 

[HMSHood]

http://blueshelled.com/2011/11/14/10-year-old-ashlynn-conner-commits-suicide/

You just have to love someone's judgemental blog that doesn't know all the facts!

Some people are so full of themselves. So self-righteous.

 

[the seeker]

When I hear about this stuff, and I see that some of the bullying (as happened in this case) was about the "clothes and shoes" of the victim, and being teased about them, I feel so strongly about school uniforms, and how it would remove this type of teasing and pressure from kids who cant, or for some reason, dont dress like the other kids. What does everyone think about school uniforms? Think it would help?