The parents of a 10-year-old girl say she committed suicide after being bullied online and at school.
The death of Ashawnty Davis in Aurora, Colorado, is being investigated as a suicide by the Arapahoe County Coroner’s Office, KUSA reported.
The Cherry Creek School District where Davis attended Sunrise Elementary School is providing counselors at the school for students who want to talk about the loss.
Davis was involved in a fight with a schoolmate after school hours, and a video taken of the fight was posted on the video social network Musical.ly, Fox31 reported. The bullying reportedly increased when the video was posted, and Davis hanged herself at home a few weeks later, spending two weeks on life support before she died Wednesday morning.
The district, which uses a curriculum called “Bullyproofing Your Schools,” said it turned the video over to police because the fight was outside school hours.
Child therapist Sheryl Ziegler, who had no direct knowledge of Davis or the case, said cyberbullying is especially problematic for children her age.
“What we’re seeing is that this has a tremendous effect on the fragile, growing brain of a child,” she told KUSA. “It’s very difficult for that child to handle that level of input.”
Ziegler said it’s difficult for parents to tell when children this young are suicidal, but that changes in behavior like not eating or sleeping well, having stomachaches every day, and not wanting to go to school can signal a bullying problem. She also advised parents to check their children’s social media accounts regularly to see what they are doing online.
Parents Anthony Davis and Latoshia Harris say the school didn’t do enough to stop the bullying. “I want other parents to know it’s happening,” Harris told Fox31. “That was my baby, and I love my baby, and I just want mothers to listen.”
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