Frimlin

This is a more serious post than you, my friends, are used to from me, but it’s a topic close to my heart as a parent & now more so that it has touched my family’s life in a devastating way. My step-children’s 12 yo half-sister took her own life yesterday afternoon. 1/

Known for her happy smile, no one realized that she’d been subjected to bullying & ostracism at school & on social media. No one knew that Someone carelessly & without thought of consequence, advised her to ‘go hang’ herself & feeling so low & worthless, that is what she did. 2/

Never will those people understand what they have done. How many lives they have changed forever. How loved she is and how much she will be missed. How much devastation they have inflicted not only on her mother & father, but her 3 siblings & extended family. 3/

As a social media user, it is my, & all our collective responsibility, to not only call out bullying & abusive behavior when we see it, but report it & stand up against it when we see it happen. We cannot sit idly by while it happens more often than we know. 4/

The reason for post this is not for sympathy or to assign blame but to highlight a widespread problem. We have the responsibility to police our own actions, words & deeds. We don’t know the state of mind of the person on the other end of the keyboard. As they don’t know ours. 5/