Parents, a school and a whole community are now being forced to deal with an issue that led up to the death of fifth grade student. A 10-year-old girl from Colorado committed suicide after seeing a video of herself being bullied posted on a popular social media app.
According to Fox 31, Ashawnty Davis, a fifth-grader at Sunrise Elementary in Aurora, Co., hung herself after a video was posted online of her being bullied. The video was posted on the video social network app Musical.ly, and she died Wednesday after spending some time on life support.
“She was just a child of joy and she brought joy to everyone,” explained father Anthony Davis. “She got into her first ever fight.”
The child of Anthony Davis and Latoshia Harris was usually joyful until October when she got into a fight with another girl at her school.
The fight was recorded and shows Ashwanty fighting another girl as a group of kids look on.
Her mother believes her daughter was confronting her bully. “I saw my daughter was scared,” explained Harris.
“She was devastated when she found out that it had made it to Musical.ly,” Davis explained.
Just two weeks after the video was posted, Ashwanty went home and hung herself in her closet. She spent two weeks in the Children’s Hospital on life support before dying on Wednesday, November 29, 2017.
“It was just devastating,” expressed her father.
Calling their daughter a victim of “bullycide,” Ashawnty’s parents said they want to make more parents aware of cases where children take their own lives due to bullying.
“Bullycide” is a common term used to describe bullying that causes suicide. Ashwanty’s parents believe that she was a victim of this are are using her death to raise awareness.
“We have to stop it and we have to stop it within our kids,” said Davis. Harris added, “I want other parents to know that it’s happening. That was my baby and I love my baby and I just want mothers to listen.”
Bullycide is clearly a serious issue. There are several different reasons that ultimately can lead to bullycide including:
– Being constantly physically and emotionally bullied
– Experiencing constant physical and emotional pain
– Having to continually relive an embarrassing moment over and over that is regularly brought up peers as a method of torment
– Being the victim of bullying by an authority figure like a parent, teacher, coach or other adult
– When the victim of bullying has no other friends to rely on for support or encouragement while being bullied regularly
Because bullying is at the root of the problem when it comes to these ever-to-frequent cases of bullycide, the best way to take preventative measures is to work on stopping children and teens from being bullied. It is important to realize that the big, mean boy or girl on the playground isn’t the only type of bully anymore. There are many types of bullies from boys, girls, teens of all ages to adults in authority positions. Cyberbullying also makes it easier for children and teens to bully one another. Bullying has also been found to be a growing trend among…
… recent bullying statistics. Now the question comes down to how to prevent bullying among youth to prevent cases of bullycide. One of the best ways to prevent bullying is to have your child journal every single instance of bullying. If the bullying is happening at school or is school-related, make sure to take this journal to a teacher, counselor or even the principal. If the matter is not resolved from there, take the situation to the police. Bullying and hate crimes are against the law. If teachers or administrative members at your school refuse to take action, file a complaint or charges against the school for negligence to cases of criminal bullying. It is their job to ensure the safety of your child while they are at school. Take the matter to the police and school board to ensure action. This may make the difference between ending the bullying and some child or teen’s life as the result of bullycide.
Do not allow your child to become a victim of bullying by encouraging open communication. If your child hides the instances of bullying from you, chances are you may not even notice that they have a problem until it is too late. Make sure your child knows they can come to you for help with anything. Another way to prevent bullycide and from bullying getting to far, make sure your child has a good group of friends. Often, bullies target children and teens who are loners or do not have many friends because they make for easy targets. Having friends can be a great protection for your teen or child against bullying. While cases of bullying and bullycide are growing, there are also more and more schools cracking down to ensure their students are not becoming bullies or becoming victims of bullies. However, parents still play a vital role in protecting their child against cases of bullying and bullycide.
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