Hope Witsell a 13-year-old that grew up in Sundance, Florida. Her only crime, forwarding a nude photo of herself to a boy she liked. Another girl borrowed the boy’s phone, found the image and forwarded it to other students. And so, the image found its way to a lot of other students in her school and in other schools. The result – taunting and bullying from her peers at Beth Shields Middle School, with insults such as "whore" and "slut".
Hope wrote in her journal. "Tons of people talk about me behind my back and I hate it because they call me a whore! And I can't be a whore I'm too inexperienced. So secretly TONS of people hate me … " School authorities found out about the nude photo around the end of the school year and suspended Hope for the first week of eighth grade. When she returned to school, a counselor observed cuts on Hope's legs and had her sign a "no-harm" contract, in which Hope agreed to tell an adult if she felt inclined to hurt herself. The next day, Hope hanged herself in her bedroom.
On Sept. 12, 2009 Hope wrote in her journal: “I'm done for sure now. I can feel it in my stomach. I'm going to try and strangle myself. I hope it works.”
So sad. Such an Innocent, stupid little thing. And all for nothing. Some may say it was her punishment for senting the picture in the first place and in an aspect it was but did everyone really have to be so mean about it? No...
Yea she shouldnt have sent the photo of cource someone might borrow it and people these days like to snoop on peoples phones. Ithink its sad that the girl sent it to everyone. It would be different if the girl who sent it to her friends was the one in the photo. Its sad that she died. She should have talked to someone and worked through it.
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