When liberals talk about bullying, it is usually the harmless, schoolyard variety, such as I endured in elementary school. Nothing physical; verbal taunts, jokes about my red hair and freckles, mockery for not being in the know about certain things that kids my age really ought not to have been in the know about. You know, the things most kids go through; the things that make kids stronger; the things that liberals nobly but pointlessly try to shelter their kids from ever experiencing. The bullying I went through caused me to undergo a period of crippling social anxiety in my middle- and high-school years. Today I have a healthy level of confidence, and an even healthier disdain for bullies than I would had I not been bullied. Today it is my personal vow that if I ever see someone being bullied—verbally or physically—I will intervene. Mean people bother me just as much as liberals do.
Just over a month ago, on September 7, a 15-year-old girl named Amanda Todd posted a video on YouTube in which she described her recent years of bullying and subsequent drug and alcohol use. A month after the video was posted, she killed herself by drinking bleach.
It all started when Amanda, in eighth grade, flashed her chest in an online chat room. A man in there took a screenshot of the video with her exposed chest and then sent her a message on Facebook that if she didn’t “put on a show” for him, he would spread her photo all over the Internet.
Over the course of what sounds like the next year or so, Amanda lost all her friends, ate lunch alone, turned to self-mutilation, drugs, and alcohol, all culminating in her decision to commit suicide, thus spreading her misery to her parents.
A few of my conservative friends reacted to the news with surprising coldness, and many liberals have reacted to it with unsurprising melodrama.
Look, that someone can be treated so poorly and made to feel so worthless that she is driven to end her life is a horrible reality. There are arguments that one needs to be mentally unstable in order for bullying to drive a person to suicide, but I am of the opinion that bullying itself can create mental instability.
Amanda Todd is dead. What’s done is done. The man who blackmailed her should be jailed for blackmail. Her bullies in school should be disciplined harshly by their parents. And indeed, that’s what this comes down to: not whether Amanda was unstable or anything like that, but parenting.
Where were Amanda’s parents when she was in chat rooms? Why was their daughter so free with exposing her body? Was her mother a radical feminist? Why did Amanda not have the moral restraint not to feel like it was a good idea to earn people’s respect by giving them visual sexual gratification? From what TV show or movie did she learn this behavior? From what public school? Where were her parents?
Amanda Todd is dead–possibly in part from an already-present mental instability, possibly in part from being tormented, but definitely in part from poor parenting and an overall shunning of family values in our society. My heart genuinely feels for Amanda, a victim not of bullying, but of parental neglect.
Sohail
October 23, 2012
I agree with this article a 100%. Amanda Todd was really neglected by her parents. From other articles I now read that her mother wants to educate other parents!!! She needs to be ashamed of herself first.
Tristan
November 12, 2012
Who in the hell do you think you are pointing the finger like this when you don’t have a damn clue what had really happened? You obviously haven’t gotten all your facts straight about this particular story and subject. First of all, tell me about a parent out there that knows exactly where and what there teenager is doing at all hours of the day and night. You don’t even have the right to begin on what you think its like to be a teenager in today’s world. When i was a teenager, there were no cell phone with camera’s and web cams, and it certainly wasn’t every house hold that even had a computer for that matter, i know mine didn’t. I know when i was a teen, my parents were ‘NOT’ standing looking over my shoulder at every little thing i have done. Just like in this case , you can’t seriously believe that Amanda’s parents would be standing there watching every single thing she does online with friends. When your a teen, you already have the world of judgement against you, a lot of peer pressure, to fit in, to be cool, and at that age you think you know everything. Your discovering your own independence, your own sexuality, your own person, and yes, you end up learning the hard way a lot, because it’s natural for the teen mind to be cluttered and make the wrong decisions from time to time, i know i have. When being a teen, still in school, and you happen to slip up and make that type of mistake, that initially you thought would be safe and private; and then it blows up in your face. That does a hell of a lot of damage to a teen, mentally,psychologically, self esteem, and there reputation is forever tarnished. When i was a teen, drugs and alcohol were a fairly common practice amongst the majority of us. I’m sure when you had your first drink or joint you weren’t 21 or waiting to be of age. Depression is quite high amongst teens to begin with, i was depressed, I cut, I hated myself, the world and everyone in it at the time, the only person i would listen to for advice was Marilyn Manson, and i know i was far from being the only one. When Amanda was up against all that judgement and everything that was happening to her at time, you cant really blame her for being depressed, or turning to using what ever it was, or even hurting herself from time to time, I know i would of probably done the exact same thing! I praise that girl for lasting as long as she did living with that kind of burden on her shoulders. I know i wouldn’t be in the best of spirits if i were going through all that. The reason i believe she hung on as long as she did was because of her parents, true friends and family. How many times did she say she moved and switched schools in that video she made? count them! Even moved cities, was in counseling, anti depressants, every type of resource possible; and you still have the nerve to say her parents didn’t do anything to help her? That there the ones to blame? you would only be so lucky, that your parents wouldn’t just let you swim around in the shark tank for a while before they decided it was time to move to another city , change daily life to accommodate with the troubled teen. I think you should quit while your ahead buddy and pack it in for writing articles were you have no ground or substance of truth. This article ,,,,,FAIL!!!!! Tristan B
Philip Rose
March 11, 2013
I have only just got round to reading this post. And I have to whole-heartedly agree about the parental neglect. I have written a whole blog about the Amanda Todd story. It never really set out to form any single conclusion, yet time and time again I was drawn back to the one major failure in all this – the failure of her parents. Mrs Todd allowed her vulnerable daughter to drink, take drugs, have sex, and have unfettered access to webcams and the Internet – on such a shocking level that, in my country (the UK) it would have been very likely that the social services would have stepped in. So take no notice of Tristan, nor anyone else for that matter. You are 100% correct. philipjrose.wordpress.com
DeeJay BeWy
March 14, 2013
Oh look the fake one is here. Hey Phil or David or perso. You are aware that I have screenshots where you admit to sexually abusing over 9000 kids? The reason he is so obsessed with Amanda is because he was one of the stalkers who is still doing the same today with other girls and boys from chat rooms. Strange one.
DeeJay BeWy
March 14, 2013
My blog is located here and you can find out all about this fake person named Phil or David or perso365. Not sure who the last one is? Look him up on the net. He is a well known online child predator. http://bewytchme.com/philip-rose-when-fiction-becomes-the-insane-reality/