(SL) – The fact that she’s only a baby and had to worry about being bullied is hard to accept. The fact that she’s only 10 and was engaged in her ‘first fight’ is even more gut wrenching. And the fact that social media posting guidelines are so unstructured that anyone can post anything no matter what the content makes me sick to my stomach.
In late October, Ashawnty Davis was involved in a fight after school. The 10-year old 5th grader was a student at Sunrise Elementary in Aurora Colorado and was being bullied. She stood up to the bully and while they fought as most kids and adults do nowadays, someone recorded it and posted the clip to musical.ly. Ashawnty was devastated.
After the video hit the site, the bullying and teasing increased. Her mother Latoshia Harris says the abuse turned her daughter into a different person. Two weeks later, the little girl came home and hanged herself in her closet.
She spent another two weeks on life support at Children’s Hospital Colorado before her parents decided to take her off.
As for the Cherry Creek School District which has jurisdiction over Sunrise, they said:
“We do not tolerate bullying of any kind in our schools and we have a comprehensive bullying prevention program in place at all of our schools. The safety and well-being of students is our highest priority and we strive every today to ensure schools are safe, welcoming and supportive places that support learning. We were made aware of that video when a media outlet approached us with it. We took immediate action in response, turning the video over to police and addressing the matter with students.’
Stricter laws need to be placed on the type of content that can be posted to these types of sites especially as it relates to children. Studies show social media use may have driven the increase in suicide rates.
According to data from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide rates for teens rose steadily between 2010 and 2015 despite two decades of decline,
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