Death of bullied teen Amanda Todd being investigated by RCMP
Title: Death of bullied teen Amanda Todd being investigated by RCMP
Category: Misc CDN
Posted By: xerxes
Date: 2012-10-13 00:15:27
Canadian
Strutz @ Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:45 pm
A heartbreaking story.
RIP Amanda.
Lemmy @ Sat Oct 13, 2012 9:48 pm
You wish you could have done something.
Hope they find the guy that started this and string him up by his balls.

Hyack @ Sat Oct 13, 2012 11:16 pm
jeff744 jeff744:
Hope they find the guy that started this and string him up by his balls.
I'll bet you it was more than likely girls in her own age group who were behind this.
Unfortunately there are some kids out there who having loving and supportive families, are(or seem) popular with lots of friends, who for some bizarre reason try to take their lives, and too many are successful. It's usually only after the fact that we find out about these feelings of despair.
I blame society and schools partially. Kids aren't being taught how to deal with adversity, and really in the end they only pay lip service to anti bullying strategies. It's interesting that incidents of teen suicide prior to 1970 were extremely rare, and now we hear of it all too frequently.
Something has gone seriously wrong with our society and it's killing our children. We really need to look at what changed to cause such a leap in suicide rates....was this girl on anti depression medication...prozac? That shit is downright evil when it comes to kids. For adults it can be a wonder drug, for kids a possible death sentence.
Then, there are the supposed anti bullying programs they have in schools....they're bullshit and only pay lip service to the problem and how to effectively deal with the issues. Most of the time it's merely a photo op or PR op for the schools. The media films a play or two, or a speech, then the kids go right back to being kids, which is for the most part cruel little monsters. It's, 'look at us and how wonderful we are'. For most of the kids, it's merely an excuse to get out of a regular class and do something 'different', and many of the teachers, a reason to go to an inservice in the city.
$1:
B.C. Mounties say they have received more than 400 tips since a 15-year-old Maple Ridge girl took her own life after experiencing relentless bullying.
Where were these people while she was still alive and being tormented...that's the time their help would really have meant something. As it stands, it's too much too little too late.

Mr_Canada Mr_Canada:
Yeah, I knew kids on Prozac in school... I wouldn't recommend it. Didn't look like it solved anything. It was like it kept kids trapped in an infantile state of mind. Maybe they were less suicidal, but they were still self-destructive and very very confused. (Just the kids I knew, perhaps)
Anti-bullying programs that we have today are absolutely pathetic.
It would be a tough debate, deciding which is more effective: the healthy food programs or the anti-bullying programs?
I'm probably asking the wrong guy, but it is really that much worse
than the bullying we all went through 20-30 years ago,
when there weren't any anti bullying programs,
and people had to sort this out by themselves ?
Yogi @ Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:51 am
martin14 martin14:
Mr_Canada Mr_Canada:
Yeah, I knew kids on Prozac in school... I wouldn't recommend it. Didn't look like it solved anything. It was like it kept kids trapped in an infantile state of mind. Maybe they were less suicidal, but they were still self-destructive and very very confused. (Just the kids I knew, perhaps)
Anti-bullying programs that we have today are absolutely pathetic.
It would be a tough debate, deciding which is more effective: the healthy food programs or the anti-bullying programs?
I'm probably asking the wrong guy, but it is really that much worse
than the bullying we all went through 20-30 years ago,
when there weren't any anti bullying programs,
and people had to sort this out by themselves ?

Rip Amanda, et al.
Same shit-different times!
When I was a kid I was the favorite target of several bullies. 2 things I learned about those who bully;
1-They have no self-confidence-low self esteem-poor self image. In general, just feel like worthless POS & need to make someone else feel worse so that they themselves can feel better. Doesn't work.
2- SELF DEFENSE! To be sure, I was cautioned by my 'instructors' that 'if I was ever the agressor that there was much that
they had not yet taught me!'Thereafter, none came back for a second helping!
jeff744 @ Sun Oct 14, 2012 12:53 am
martin14 martin14:
Mr_Canada Mr_Canada:
Yeah, I knew kids on Prozac in school... I wouldn't recommend it. Didn't look like it solved anything. It was like it kept kids trapped in an infantile state of mind. Maybe they were less suicidal, but they were still self-destructive and very very confused. (Just the kids I knew, perhaps)
Anti-bullying programs that we have today are absolutely pathetic.
It would be a tough debate, deciding which is more effective: the healthy food programs or the anti-bullying programs?
I'm probably asking the wrong guy, but it is really that much worse
than the bullying we all went through 20-30 years ago,
when there weren't any anti bullying programs,
and people had to sort this out by themselves ?
It's the parents that changed mostly, and the fact the internet made pictures last forever. Parents pamper their kids and don't want their kid fighting back at all and the kid that would have protected them by fighting for them can't do that either or the school will go after him while ignoring the bully. Somehow the system made a system that protects the bully and attacks those fighting for the victim or the the victim themselves when they resist until the victims finally gives up and commits suicide.
xerxes @ Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:26 am
I think the problem is now the Internet can compound the isolation bullied kids feel. Back in the day, the problem was at school largely, but now it follows you home, and then it can seem like the whole world is literally on your case.
Honestly, I don't think anti-bullying problems will ever be truly effective. There will always be people who make themselves feel better by dominating other people; it's human nature, it'll never change. What absolutely has to change is the culture and the implicit acceptance of bullying. Whenever it starts and there's no immediate rebuke from a teacher or more importantly, the other students, then it's too late. When the bully see that they can cross the line and not be stopped then the situation will likely only end in an act of extreme violence.
The culture has to change. Bullying isn't a rite of passage or kids being kids like the baby boomers like to think it is. As we've been reminded again this week, it can destroy lives. Kids are cruel. Kids are brutal to each other, especially in their teens, as they've at the age where can do real harm to others but lack the maturity to realise the depth of what they're doing.
xerxes @ Sun Oct 14, 2012 1:41 am
Stories like this both break my heart and turn my stomach mostly because it didn't have to end this way. There's over 70,000 likes on her FB memorial page, where were these people when she was going through her own personal hell? Where were they to reassure her that it's not so bad as it seems, or tell her "Fuck those bitches. You're better than them no matter what dumb shit you did in the past."
As for the guy who initially posted the images, by all means lock him up for distribution of child-pornography. Moreover, I wish the kids at the schools Amanda Todd went to are all gathered together and given an absolute guilt-trip of dressing down:
"All of you who ever teased her, her death is on your hands. You pushed and you pushed and you pushed until she broke. And if there is any justice in this world, thoughts of what you've done will torture your souls and haunt your dreams until the end of your days.
And to the rest of you who sitting there saying to yourselves 'well I never did anything to her so why should I feel guilty?' Where were you when this was going on? Did you ever defend her and tell other kids to give her a break? Did you ever try and comfort her?

martin14 martin14:
I'm probably asking the wrong guy, but it is really that much worse
than the bullying we all went through 20-30 years ago,
when there weren't any anti bullying programs,
and people had to sort this out by themselves ?
We didn't have Facebook then.
$1:
While more than 475,000 Facebook users had “liked” Todd’s memorial page on the social media website by Saturday evening, strangers and even former classmates interrupted the condolences to post vile comments and images.
Posts include one, by a woman who identified herself as Todd’s classmate, who wrote: “I’m so happy she’s dead now.”
Surely you've seen how people on the Internet can be much more callous than they could possibly be face to face. Imagine bullying someone on their memorial page. What kind of person would do that 20 or 30 years ago before they had an I.P. address to hide behind?