How a cell phone picture led to girl's suicide

How a cell phone picture led to girl's suicide

October 07, 2010
By Randi Kaye, AC360° Correspondent

At age 13, Hope Witsell struggled in middle school. Not because her class work at Shields Middle School in Ruskin, Florida, was challenging, but because Hope was being bullied.

Her friend, Kyla Stich, told CNN that fellow students would "walk up to her and call her 'slut,' 'whore,' and they would sometimes, they would call her 'skank' and just be really cruel to her."

Another friend, Lexi Leber, said, "We had to make like a wall, we had people surrounding her, and she had to be in the middle because people would come by and try to hit her and push her into a locker or something.

Read more: http://articles.cnn.com/2010-10-07/living/hope.witsells.story_1_photo-scarves-new-school-year?_s=PM:LIVING

Ann ~ Thanks for calling this atrocity to our attention. How horrible that kids can tease and torment another child to a point where life becomes hell and the victim sees nothing but more of the same. Ironic, that this young girl named Hope had no hope left for a better world. This harrassment still goes on in schools, even in elementary schools. Bullies come in all shapes and sizes. More and more kids have become mean-spirited and devoid of compassion. Not even laws can protect the innocent, who often just cannot tolerate it anymore.
Poor, poor girl ~ her life should not have ended that way.

These stories just break my heart. I've been watching Anderson Cooper's coverage of bullies all week. I think technology has taken the tormenting to a horrendous extreme. God bless them all........