13-Year-Old Girl Commits Suicide After Years of Being Bullied

[Judi Lynn]

Source: NBC News

She left behind a letter apologizing and mentioned that she was "ugly" and a "loser"

By Hetty Chang

After being relentlessly bullied by her middle school peers for two years, 13-year-old Rosalie Avila tragically took her own life on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017.

Mesa View Middle School mourned the death of the eight grader with a candlelight vigil, where hundreds of Avila's peers, teachers and loved ones attended.

Avila is described as loving and warm individual who was a great artist and always got good grades. Her family said she loved the snow as much as she loved the beach and enjoyed singing. Her dream was to become a lawyer so she could make the world a better place.

"My daughter had the whole world," her father, Freddie Avila said in tears. "Now, I just have to think about what she could have done or what she could have become. Now it's just a memory.

Read more: https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/13-Year-Old-Student-Takes-Her-Own-Life-After-Being-Bullied-for-Years-461483143.html

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13-Year-Old Commits Suicide After Severe Bullying at School, Parents Say
By Ivan Pentchoukov
December 2, 2017 6:18 pm Last Updated: December 2, 2017 6:18 pm

A 13-year-old California girl committed suicide on Nov. 28. Her devastated parents said she ended her life after being severely bullied at school.

Rosalie Avila was “lovable and loving” according to her mom, Charlene Avila.

“She was a beautiful person inside and out,” the mother wrote on GoFundMe. “Her smile would light up the whole room with her laughter.”

On Friday, Rosalie’s parents and her big family attended a vigil at Mesa View Middle School in Calimesa to say farewell to their beloved girl, ABC 13 reported.

More:
https://www.theepochtimes.com/13-year-old-commits-suicide-after-severe-bullying-at-school-parents-say_2377287.html

Images of Rosalie Avila at her mother's Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=943390719132108&set=a.110378699099985.12814.100003835674746&type=3&theater

[SaveOurDemocracy]

1. So very sad ... No words.

[rockfordfile]

2. What's the school going to do about this?

[angrychair]

3. Thoughts and prayers apparently

Standard response.

[SummerSnow]

5. They will probably have "grief counselors" for the students . Nothing more.

[Oneironaut]

8. Like every other school - Spew fake remorse and pretend they didn't treat the victim like the

problem. Schools simply don't care about bullying, and will do their best to hide the problem and make it go away (let the victim continue to get bullied, but have them keep quiet about it).

The fact is, they still don't care. If they had the capacity to care, this girl would probably still be alive.

[Drahthaardogs]

12. Considering most abuse takes place on line and off campus these days

How is a school supposed to deal with it? They are barely funded enough to take care of issues are school, let alone out of school. Teachers and administration have no responsibility, time, or money to take care of issues off campus.

Parents better wake up and quit expecting the school to handle these issues. The world has changed.

[Oneironaut]

18. I feel like the school has a responsibility to try and stop all bullying - even online bullying.

Online bullying is an extension of in-school bullying. It's even worse now, as school administrators will say, "It's happening outside of school! It's not our problem! Let the kids work it out themselves!" I do think the schools can do more than just burying their heads in the sand to avoid looking bad.

Many times, parents do try to help. All of their complaints fall on deaf ears. They're ignored until it becomes a tragedy.

[Drahthaardogs]

19. Well, I understand your desire

But the bottom line is teachers are trying to teach with classroom sizes of 35 kids.

There are no resources to do the basic job of educating the children, let alone the extras. Parents would do well to remember this and adjust accordingly

[meadowlander]

29. Teachers aren't omniscient.

If the school was aware of the bullying and did absolutely nothing, that's one thing.

But if the bullying was happening online and the girl didn't say anything about it to any adults at school, then there isn't that much that they can do.

Even if the girl did say something, there's not that much that the school could do to stop a determined bully particularly someone who is bullying with words and doesn't do it on school grounds. They could give the bully detention or suspend them but eventually they are going to be back and bullying some more. If the bully's parents don't care and the bullying doesn't quite reach the threshold where the police would step in, there isn't that much that the school can do.

When I was a teacher, I would see 100+ kids a day for an hour each, more or less never one on one. I was polite, respectful and invested in their learning. I wasn't their best friend or their parent or their social worker or their psychologist. I taught. That was my job. I literally didn't have a second in the day to effectively be anything else.

If you are staking your kid's life on their teacher or principal noticing that they seem a bit quiet in class today, and pulling them aside for a series of one-on-ones to establish trust, and convincing your kid to open up to them, and then magically being able to prevent some other kids from being little shits, and also curing clinical depression, and then doing the same for the other 99 kids they see every day then you need to reexamine your expectations of education institutions. And any teacher who actually did all of that would probably be accused by the parents of grooming the kid for abuse or be told to butt out because it's none of their business.

Schools are convenient targets because confidentiality prevents them from fighting back and everyone feels so bad for the parents nobody wants to suggest that if someone was going to notice something maybe it would be the parent they spend 50% of their day with and have known since birth and not the teacher they spend 5% with and have known for a few months. Or admit that mental health crises can affect tragically young people and sometimes there isn't anything anyone could have done to stop it.

[Oneironaut]

31. Thank you for chiming in.

Perhaps I shouldn’t let my experiences with school administrators cloud my judgment of all cases. The truth is, we really don’t know all the details here.

[SummerSnow]

4. omg. Poor baby :(

[yuiyoshida]

6. Just horrible, a beautiful life snuffed out

[shenmue]

7. ...

[marble falls]

9. I think of my daughters at that age and my grand daughter and it just breaks me up...

what a terrible thing this has to be to her family.

[Honeycombe8]

10. Damn. I find it hard to believe...

that some adult or adults could not stop the bullying or remove her from that school. Damn. You can't just leave a kid facing that sort of thing for two years.

[Drahthaardogs]

13. Today, with Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook

Bullying does not end @ 3:00 pm and even if you pull your kid out of school, if you allow them access to social media, the problem will continue.

[Honeycombe8]

16. Pull her out of school...wipe out her social media accounts....

home school her or enter her in another school, if I can.

The idea is to insulate her from abuse. It has to be done.

And/or the school needs to suspend those who carry out bullying on social media sites. They are no longer relevant, when they're gone.

It must be done.

[Drahthaardogs]

20. I agree. I would do just that.

I would move too if I had to. I would not expect the school to fix this

[Honeycombe8]

25. I would, too.

What is unacceptable is expecting a child to deal with that for 2 years. Most don't have the skills to handle that; they're kids.

[Drahthaardogs]

28. It's different now. They CAN'T get away from it

Summer...nope, social media took care of that.

[Honeycombe8]

32. Yes, they can. Remove social media. It becomes inconsequential.

I know young people find that thought shocking (no social media). But it must be done. New life, new friends, no social media, no smart phone.

Bullies only bully when they can get a reaction. When it matters.

[EllieBC]

15. I'm not sure how old you are but bullying is a 24/7 business now.

I thankfully went through middle school and high school long before the internet was usable by all. My bully only had French class and the bus and occasionally lunch to torment me during in 8th grade.

Now kids can be reached online via twitter and Facebook or on their phones all day every day. They have no escape. 😞

[Honeycombe8]

17. Easy. No social media accounts.

Better than being the subject of bullying online. Grades will go up, too, as a benefit. Home school, if possible.

Also...the bullies need to be harshly treated at their school. They cannot be allowed to do that w/o serious penalty. And the girl cannot be allowed to continue to be subjected to it.

No choice. It has to end.

[Drahthaardogs]

21. No. Local officials need to handle the bullies

Anything out of school is not their issue

[EllieBC]

22. There was a case here where the bullies created a Twitter

for their target. They used her yearbook photo, created an email, made the account and began tweeting terrible things making it look like it was her.

Her mom was part of a CBC story that demonstrated your kid doesn't even need a social media account to be a target. The bullies will make one for you.

Also, telling kids no social media is the equivalent of abstinence only sex ed. And it punishes good kids and tells rhe bullies they won the day.

[Honeycombe8]

24. No problem. The family is not involved in social media.

The child is involved in schooling, OTHER in-person friends, etc. It's likely they'll never know of such things (which are rare, BTW), but if thy do...no big deal. She is no longer part of that circle. It's history. It's irrelevant. She now has a new life.

Except the parents need to press, even sue if necessary, to hold the bully kids & the school accountable.

What will not work is to let the child try to deal with that for two years. Any idiot knows that. It's likely the adults didn't know the extent of it, but surely the teachers had seen something, the mother noticed something wrong. With cyberbullying being in the news so much the last few years, it's really inexcusable that the adults didn't do something about this.

[EllieBC]

27. Adults used to get involved. I remember my dad calling

the dad of one of my bullies.

The schools here now don't want parents to do that. They ask that you let the schools handle it.

Know how they handled it at my friend's daughter's school in Victoria? They made her sit down with her bully and discuss her feelings. Poor girl was revictimized because the schools believe in "reconciliation" to remedy bullying.

[SamKnause]

11. ...

[Stuart G]

14. ...

[BadGimp]

23. So incredibly Sad.

[alarimer]

26. Criminal charges for those abetting bullying

And real, lifelong consequences for bullies. No college scholarship eligibility, for instance.

[Initech]

33. Fuck bullies and fuck bullying.

That kid definitely deserved better.

[orleans]

34. so heartbreaking

"Rosalie's emotional father had a message for people everywhere.

"Think about what you say before you say it because your words are going to hurt somebody," Freddie Avila said, in tears."

http://abc7chicago.com/bullying-leads-to-13-year-old-girls-suicide-family-says/2732861/

[TomCADem]

35. Perhaps Her Classmates Were Acting Presidential...

Think about it. Our children are learning from our Commander in Chief: