Felony Counts for 2 in Suicide of Bullied 12-Year-Old

[Mr. Television]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/16/us...wick.html?_r=0

Felony Counts for 2 in Suicide of Bullied 12-Year-Old
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
Published: October 15, 2013



MIAMI — For the Polk County sheriff’s office, which has been investigating the cyberbullying suicide of a 12-year-old Florida girl, the Facebook comment was impossible to disregard.




In Internet shorthand it began “Yes, ik” — I know — “I bullied Rebecca nd she killed herself.” The writer concluded that she didn’t care, using an obscenity to make the point and a heart as a perverse flourish. Five weeks ago, Rebecca Ann Sedwick, a seventh grader in Lakeland in central Florida, jumped to her death from an abandoned cement factory silo after enduring a year, on and off, of face-to-face and online bullying.

The Facebook post, Sheriff Grady Judd of Polk County said, was so offensive that he decided to move forward with the arrest immediately rather than continue to gather evidence. With a probable cause affidavit in hand, he sent his deputies Monday night to arrest two girls, calling them the “primary harassers.” The first, a 14-year-old, is the one who posted the comment Saturday, he said. The second is her friend, and Rebecca’s former best friend, a 12-year-old.

Both were charged with aggravated stalking, a third-degree felony and will be processed through the juvenile court system. Neither had an arrest record. The older girl was taken into custody in the juvenile wing of the Polk County Jail. The younger girl, who the police said expressed remorse, was released to her parents under house arrest.

Originally, Sheriff Judd said he had hoped to wait until he received data from two far-flung cellphone application companies, Kik Messenger and ask.fm, before moving forward.

“We learned this over the weekend, and we decided that, look, we can’t leave her out there,” Sheriff Judd said, referring to the older girl. “Who else is she going to torment? Who else is she going to harass? Who is the next person she verbally abuses and attacks?”

He said the older girl told the police that her account had been hacked, and that she had not posted the comment.

“She forced this arrest today,” Sheriff Judd said.

Rebecca was bullied from December 2012 to February 2013, according to the probable cause affidavit. But her mother, Tricia Norman, has said the bullying began long before then and continued until Rebecca killed herself.

The older of the two girls acknowledged to the police that she had bullied Rebecca. She said she had sent Rebecca a Facebook message saying that “nobody” liked her, the affidavit said. The girl also texted Rebecca that she wanted to “fight” her, the police said. But the bullying did not end there; Rebecca was told to “kill herself” and “drink bleach and die” among other things, the police added.

The bullying contributed to Rebecca’s suicide, the sheriff said.

Brimming with outrage and incredulity, the sheriff said in a news conference on Tuesday that he was stunned by the older girl’s Saturday Facebook posting. But he reserved his harshest words for the girl’s parents for failing to monitor her behavior, after she had been questioned by the police, and for allowing her to keep her cellphone.

“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. “Parents, who instead of taking that device and smashing it into a thousand pieces in front of that child, say her account was hacked.”

The police said the dispute with Rebecca began over a boy. The older girl was upset that Rebecca had once dated her boyfriend, they said.

“She began to harass and ultimately torment Rebecca,” said the sheriff, describing the 14-year-old as a girl with a long history of bullying behavior.

The police said the older girl began to turn Rebecca’s friends against her, including her former best friend, the 12-year-old who was charged. She told anyone who tried to befriend Rebecca that they also would be bullied, the affidavit said.

The bullying leapt into the virtual world, Sheriff Judd said, and Rebecca began receiving sordid messages instructing her to “go kill yourself.” The police said Rebecca’s mother was reluctant to take her cellphone away because she did not want to alienate her daughter and wanted her to be able to communicate with her friends. Ms. Norman tried, she has said, to monitor Rebecca’s cellphone activity.

In December, the bullying grew so intense that Rebecca began cutting herself and was sent to a hospital by her mother to receive psychiatric care. Ultimately, her mother pulled her out of Crystal Lake Middle School. She home schooled her for a while and then enrolled her in a new school in August.

But the bullying did not stop.

“As a child, I can remember sticks and stones can break your bones but words will never hurt you,” the sheriff said. “Today, words stick because they are printed and they are there forever.”

Some of the messages were sent using a variety of social media smartphone messaging and photo-sharing applications, including ask.fm and Kik Messenger, that parents have a difficult time keeping track of.

“Watch what your children do online,” Sheriff Judd said. “Pay attention. Quit being their best friend and be their best parent. That’s important.”

[Janice]

Such a sad story. What despair that young girl must have felt, to end her life so tragically. Let's hope that cases like this, with charges filed against the bullies, it will act as a deterrent for other jerks.

[Family Ties Forever!]

So sad. It's terrible that she was bullied like that. No one deserves that. I'm sorry that it lead to her death. May she rest in peace. I hope all those involved in the bullying including the two who were charged face consequences for their actions. Being bullied is a terrible thing. I was bullied as a child and it was awful. I can only imagine how bad it would be now with the technology that's available.

[Mr. Television]

Originally Posted by Family Ties Forever!

So sad. It's terrible thta she was bullied like that. No one deserves that. I'm sorry that it lead to her death. May she rest in peace. I hope all those involved in the bullying including the two who were charged face consequences for their actions. Being bullied is a terrible thing. I was bullied as a child and it was awful. I can only imagine how bad it would be now with the technology that's available.

You know I can't even imagine it. I know when I got home from school, that was my safe zone. What happened at school stayed there. Nowadays there really is no escape. I hope these 2 get what they deserve.

[OH Nuts!]

Originally Posted by Stuck In The '70's

I hope these 2 get what they deserve.

The little monsters I do too. It would be poetic justice to see them get a taste of their own medicine. Like those little sh*ts who terrorized that poor school bus monitor last year in Greece, NY.

[Coffeecup]

What blows my mind is the children have no regret. I have been on this site now for about ten years and I don't I ever being disrespectful. The bullied girl must have felt so afraid and scared. I am sure she cried a lot too. What ever happened to kindness.??

The penalty will probably a good talk and the children will move on. I don;t think a jail sentence will be advised although I think they should go to Juvenile Hall and go to good therapist.

This situation sounds like a plot for a LIFETime movie. Sad.

[isiahthomas]

I'm so sick and tired of bullies messing with good kids. It's so sad that there seems to be more bad people than good people in the world. I was bullied when i was young also and that's why i hated school. Bullies will never change and the only way they're gonna find out that being bad isn't good is until they're in the cemetary.

[spunkygirl]

The parents of both girls should be charged