Parents of 13-year-old schoolgirl who hanged herself get bullied online over her death
Rosalie Avila’s parents found diary entries about the abuse their daughter had suffered
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Your support makes all the difference.The parents of a 13-year-old girl who hanged herself after she was bullied on social media have themselves become the targets of abusive online messages.
Rosalie Avila attempted to kill herself last week at her family’s home in Yucaipa, California.
She was placed on life support in hospital, but after she was declared brain dead, her family decided to switch it off earlier this week.
Charlene and Freddie Avila found a note from their daughter apologising for killing herself and entries in her journal documented some of the bullying she had experienced at school.
Her father read some of them on CBS Los Angeles.
“They told me I was ugly today,” Rosalie had written at one point. “They were making fun about my teeth.”
As they struggled to copy wit the grief, the pair were targetted by bullies on social media, who mocked the death of their daughter.
They were sent an a picture with a photo of Rosalie superimposed onto a body. She was giving a thumbs down next to a bed.
A message next to it read: “Hey mom. Next time don’t tuck me in this.”
Underneath was another image with their daughter’s head superimposed onto a body with its arms and hands pointing towards a freshly dug grave.
The text next to it read: ”Tuck me in THIS.”
Ms Avila said the people who sent it were “heartless” and “have no compassion”.
On a GoFundMe fundraising page for money towards Rosalie’s medical expenses and memorial, she said her daughter was “a victim of bullying”
Describing the teenager as “a beautiful person inside and out” who loved to watch The Walking Dead and Stranger Things, she said Rosalie “truly cared about people”.
The page has raised over $52,700 (£39,400) in five days.
The family were not aware of the extent of the bullying Rosalie had been experiencing at school, Ms Avila said in separate interview with NBC News, before calling on the institution to get tougher on the subject.
“She just kept this to herself,” Ms Avila said. “On the inside, it was just tearing her to pieces that they were always making fun of her.”
The Yucaipa-Calimesa join unified school district said in a statement: “No one can fathom the heartbreak and confusion that we are certain many of our students and families are feeling right now.
It added that crisis counsellors were on hand for students.
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