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B1 WEEKEND EDITION CENTRAL ALBERTA’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
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SATURDAY, NOV. 3, 2012
BREAKING NEWS ONLINE AT WWW.REDDEERADVOCATE.COM
Photo by LAURA TESTER/Advocate staff
St. Thomas Aquinas Middle School students Luke Puto and Abagael Thiessen say that the suicide of Amanda Todd has been a topic of conversation.
HEEDING THE MESSAGE BY LAURA TESTER ADVOCATE STAFF
Central Alberta students are still talking about the heartbreaking story of Amanda Todd. They know what can happen if a teenager feels so alone. Tormented by strangers and classmates, the Vancouver-area teen tried to escape. But the bullying online and physical attack that followed were too tough to endure for the 15-year-old. At St. Thomas Aquinas Middle School in Red Deer, students Abagael Thiessen and Luke Puto say Amanda’s sad ending is a reminder that bullying cannot be tolerated. Like several million others around the globe, they’ve seen the video Amanda posted on YouTube, just weeks before she took her life on Oct. 10. “No matter how hard she tried to get away from it, she never could get away,” said Puto, 13. Amanda spiralled into a state of depression over continued negative comments on Facebook and cellphone texting. Diane Weber Bederman, a chaplain, asked in the Toronto Star on Oct. 17, why a multidisciplinary approach wasn’t used to treat Amanda. “The vast majority of children who are bullied don’t kill themselves,” wrote Bederman. “She killed herself because she was in the middle of a mental health crisis that should have been treated.” Larry Jacobs, superintendent at Wolf Creek Public Schools, agrees that mental health needs to be talked about in light of bullying, too. A number of school districts are questioning whether Amanda’s video should be viewed in classrooms, he said, because they don’t want vulnerable students to think that suicide is the way to go. Jacobs said they have sent an advisory to all their schools to be aware of this before any decision to show the video. Bullying is a key discussion point in schools, and in particular what students should do if they feel they are being targeted online. The Alberta government says it will bring in some of Canada’s toughest anti-bullying measures under its proposed new Education Act.
Photos from YouTube
Tormented by strangers and classmates, Vancouver-area teen Amanda Todd tried to escape. But the bullying online and physical attacks that followed were too tough to endure for the 15-year-old, who committed suicide on Oct. 10.
‘Some kids think it’s OK to pick on others because they think they are different.’
Please see BULLYING on Page A2
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