undiscovered by ~lyddie on deviantART
Found this article on NY Daily News
The parents of a British 15-year-old schoolgirl blame “huge pressure” and “modern complexities” of social networking Web sites for the suicide of their teen daughter, The London Times Online reported Monday.
Holly Grogan jumped 30 feet to her death from a bridge last week and was hit by traffic after abusive messages were relentlessly posted onto her Facebook page, according to Times Online.
Her parents, Steve, 45, and Anita, 44, warned other families of the dangers of cyberbullying.
“Holly struggled to cope with the huge pressures placed upon her by the modern complexities of ‘friendship groups’ and social networking,” her parents said in a statement. “Every responsibile parent will empathize with our constant battle to instill self-belief and confidence in our children.”
Holly, who attended St. Edward’s School in Cheltenham, “had the biggest smile in the world,” but was targeted by girls at the Catholic school, said her friend Chloe Davis, 16.
“Girls used to gang up on her and call her names and she didn’t have anything to say back,” Chloe said. “She just froze up. Girls used to bully her on Facebook and leave comments on her wall calling her names. They’ve probably all deleted them now.”
The bullying was so bad at Holly’s first school that she had to switch, said Chloe, who attends Chosen Hill secondary school in Gloucester.
But the abuse didn’t stop.
“I heard that the girls who bullied her at her old school told their friends at her new school to bully her as well, and so it just kept on and on,” Chloe told Times Online. “Apparently there was a girl at her school yesterday who was running around crying because she used to bully her, but she should have thought about that at the time.”
Despite the tragedy, Holly’s parents, and her brother Tom, 17, held on to happy memories of their “beuatiful, kind and caring Holly,” whose “outwardly vivacious zest for life was apparent to all who knew her.”
The Grogans were also found solace through cybermessages of support.
“The family has been greatly comforted by the comments and tributes left on various social networking sites,” the Grogans’ statement said.
Holly’s ordeal and subsequent suicide echoes the tragedy of Megan Meier in Missouri. The 13-year-old MySpace user connected with a group of people who created a fake account in 2006 under the name “Josh Evans.” When one of the fake users, writing as Josh, told Megan the world would be a better place without her, Megan hanged herself in her bedroom.
