Only three days ago Amanda Todd has committed suicide, she was a Canadian girl who was 15 years old, to which her companions had subjected her to continuous harassment, with intentional physical aggressions included.
In Spain, the first case of suicide due to bullying was that of Jokin, who threw himself from the wall of Hondarribia because he could not bear the idea of having to return to the class where he was humiliated and beaten. It was in 2004, and I think it’s time that we all became aware that these things happen and that the responsibility to avoid them is joint. I know it's more comfortable to look the other way when we read this kind of news, but Is it really the healthiest thing for society? And what about the victims and their families? Do they not deserve even a little reflection on our part?
The video that heads this post was recorded by Amanda Todd a week before taking her own life ... a weak sign of help through which she recounted what was happening to her.
And do you know that, although it is not possible to see the positive side of all this, Yes, we can educate our children. Teach them that if they are harassed they can find help by telling them, and that they should not become stalkers or spectators.
And there is hope that it is the children themselves who lend support to each other, and far from silence, beyond fear, prove to those who harass that the victims will never be alone. In this sense I really like this video that I put below:
"Free, oh free my eyes will continue even if my feet stop," were the words Jokin wrote on the Internet hours before he died. For me it is a phrase that invites us to become active members of a society that rejects bullying, in receptive people who will know how to listen to children who become victims of these situations.
