A teenager posted a heartbreaking video on YouTube chronicling years of bullying in school and online, cutting and humiliation up until she died this week.
Amanda Todd, 15, posted the video called “My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm” on Sept. 7 and was found dead in her home town of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, just over a month later.
“Hello, I’ve decided to tell you about my never ending story,” the black and white video begins. Todd can only be seen from her nose down for most of the video, occasionally moving around so that her face is visible. She silently tells her story through a series of white cards with black marker writing on them.
She describes using webcam chats to meet and talk to new people online as a seventh grade student. She said that people told her she was “stunning, beautiful, perfect” and a man pressured her to flash her chest. One year later, she did.
Todd received a Facebook message from a man she did not know saying that if she did not “put on a show” for him, he would send the photo of her chest to everyone. Over Christmas break, Todd said police came to her house at 4 a.m. to tell her that the photo had been sent to everyone.
“I then got really sick and got anxiety, major depression and panic disorders,” she wrote. “I then moved and got into drugs and alcohol.”
A year after moving, Todd said things were going better until the man on Facebook came back and used the photo of her chest as his profile picture. Todd said she “cried every night, lost all my friends and respect people had for me again.”
“I can never get that photo back,” she wrote. “It’s out there forever.”
She described being called names, eating lunch alone and resorting to cutting herself. She also told the story of an incident where she made a “huge mistake” and “hooked up” with a boy at her school who had a girlfriend, but who she believed really liked her.
A week later, she said she received a text message telling her to get out of school and then a group of students, led by the boy’s girlfriend, surrounded her at school and said, “Look around, nobody likes you.”
“A guy then yelled, ‘Just punch her already,’ so [the girlfriend] did,” Todd wrote. “She threw me to the ground and punched me several times. Kids filmed it. I was all alone and left on the ground.”
Todd said she “wanted to die so bad” when her dad found her in a ditch. She drank bleach when she went home and had to be rushed to the hospital to have her stomach pumped, she said.
“After I got home, all I saw was on Facebook–‘She deserved it. Did you wash the mud out of your hair? I hope she’s dead,'” she wrote.
Todd moved to another school in another city, but said the torture followed her through Facebook. Students posted photos of ditches and suggested she try another bleach.
“Every day, I think, why am I still here?” she asked towards the end of the video. “I’m stuck. What’s left of me now? Nothing stops. I have nobody. I need someone. My name is Amanda Todd.”
Authorities were called to a residence in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, just before 6 p.m. on Oct. 10 to investigate the sudden death of the tormented teenager.
While authorities have not officially called the death a suicide, Cpl. Jamie Chung of the Coquitlam Royal Canadian Mounted Police said in a statement, “At this time it has been determined that the teen’s death was not suspicious in nature and that foul play was not a factor.”
The coroner is investigating the death, police said.
Teenager Documents Bullying and Abuse Before Her Death
Todd said in her video that she did not want to press charges against the girl who beat her up because she ? wanted to move on? when she moved to another city and school.
Police did not immediately respond to ABCNews.com’s question whether there was a probe into the man who used Todd’s Facebook photo in an effort to exploit her and then made it public.
Todd’s family has declined to speak, but Cheryl Quinton, spokeswoman for the Coquitlam School District, told ABCNews.com, “The family was wanting to pass along that several supports were in place for their daughter on the school, home and community levels. There was a lot of intervention and a lot of support. I know that is the message that they want to convey.”
Todd was in the tenth grade at the Coquitlam Alternate Basic Education School when she died. School officials would not release the name of her previous school.
Quinton said the death has been “very devastating” to the small school where resources are being provided to students in regards to suicide prevention and bullying.
“We typically, as a school district, don’t talk about such deaths but with the family’s endorsement we did choose to do so because it is important to point out the dangers associated with social media and cyber-bullying,” Quinton said.
Courtesy: abcnews