On Sept. 7, 2012, Amanda Todd, 15, posted a distressing video on Youtube. Titled “My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm”, the video describes years of bullying, in both school and online, and the torment she was forced to endure. Just over a month later, the teen was found dead in her home town of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia.
Todd does not show her face for most of the video, instead showing her story through a series of white cards with writing on them. “Hello, I’ve decided to tell you about my never ending story,” the black and white video begins. Todd then proceeds to describe using webcams to chat with new people online in seventh grade. People called her “beautiful, stunning, perfect”, and one man asked her to flash. She did.
One year later, she received a Facebook message from a stranger, saying that if she did not “put on a show” for him, he would leak the photo of her chest to everyone. She ignored this message, and the nightmare began. During Christmas break, at 4 a.m., the police came knocking on her door. The photo had been sent to everyone.
Todd lost all her friends and respect. She became involved with drugs and alcohol. She moved, and things were going better until her new friends found out about the photo, then she was alone again. She was harassed in school, was called names, and ate lunch alone. Everyone hated her. Everyone judged her. As if that wasn’t enough, Todd made another “huge mistake”, as she called it on her video. She hooked up with a boy at her school, who she believed liked her, but in reality had a girlfriend. A week later, a group of students, led by the boy’s girlfriend, surrounded her at school and told her that nobody liked her. The girlfriend then threw her to the ground, and punched her several times, while kids filmed it. Hours later, her father found her lying in a ditch.
When she got home, Todd drank bleach, intending to kill herself. She was rushed to the hospital,and had to have her stomach pumped.
“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. Even after she switched schools again, the teen continued to be tormented through Facebook. People posted pictures of bleach and ditches, tagging her. “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.”
On Oct.10, Amanda Todd hung herself. Authorities were called in to investigate her sudden death. While the death has not been officially prounounced a suicide, Cpl. Jamie Chung of the Coquitlam Royal Canadian Mounted Police said that Todd’s death was “not suspicious in nature” and that “foul play was not a factor”.
Her death is currently being investigated, the police said.
