Two students charged with cyberstalking following young girls suicide

Two students have been charged with cyberstalking weeks after their classmate committed suicide.

Gabriella Green, 12, was found dead at her parents’ Florida home on January 10 after complaining to her mother of ‘girl drama’ and saying she had been getting ‘particularly heavy’ threatening messages.

Panama City Beach officials announced on Monday that two 12-year-old students at Surfside were charged with cyberstalking in connection to the girl’s death, reports Daily Mail.

Authorities did not release the identities of the children because they are minors.

Investigators said they interviewed the children with their parents’ permission, after learning of potential cyberbullying against Gabriella.

The students allegedly confessed to sending their classmate harassing messages ‘knowing that said conduct would result in emotional distress’.

Authorities said cell phones and social media accounts were examined as part of their investigation. Police issued a warning to parents to closely monitor what their kids are seeing and sharing online.

‘These specific cell phone applications have been found to be the root of several dangerous and negative situations, such as cyberbullying, sexting and potential access by online predators,’ police said in a news release.

According to police, their investigation did not reveal cyberbullying was the sole cause of Gabriella’s death just that it occurred at the time of the death.

The medical examiner is still working to determine the girl’s cause of death.

Gabriella’s mom, Tanya Green, told the Panama City New Herald that the arrests ‘were gratifying’ but she blames the school for not stepping in when she reported that her daughter was being targeted.

‘It’s going to help others at her school,’ she told the newspaper. ‘It’s going to start at her school. It’s going to help others around the world.’

Sadly just recently in Australia a 14-year-old NT girl took her own life after suffering cyber bullying. Read more on what her family hope to achieve after her tragic death.

Since Dolly’s suicide a QLD Mother launched a petition to ban apps with the potential for cyberbullying – support her cause here.

Last year a terrified mother shared on Facebook how her young daughter had contemplated suicide after she had been bullied at Primary School – read her story here.

We seriously need to step up and stop bullying. Parents are all responsible to help teach children the tragic affect it has. #doitfordolly

*Readers in need of support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Suicide Call Back Service 1300 659 467.

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15 Comments

- - june11 said
  - 11 Feb 2018
    11:44 pm
I know for a fact you can lock a phone so you can only call certain numbers. I know one parent who did it and a company a friend of mine worked for a company whose employees were only supposed to call their workplace. I don’t know if it can be fixed that it only accepts calls or messages from some numbers.

- - mom101628 said
  - 31 Jan 2018
    10:32 pm
Do hope that cyber problems will cease once people start to learn to put down the phones again. We never needed them 24/7 in the past and we shouldn’t use them to the exclusion of all else now. Please ladies, and children, just turn the thing off and walk away from this bullying.

- - tessie said
  - 31 Jan 2018
    1:28 am
Kids are meant to be playing and laughing not getting bullied so badly that they commit suicide. What is wrong with these kids and where do they get the ideas from in the first place. No matter how young the bullies are they need to be reprimanded strongly. Wonder how their parents feel knowing their children in some way caused another’s suicide

- - sars_angelchik said
  - 30 Jan 2018
    1:18 pm
It’s about time that justice is being served! Bullies need to be punished!

- - ella12 said
  - 29 Jan 2018
    1:47 pm
I hate hearing these stories, so sad.

- - rovermum said
  - 29 Jan 2018
    8:55 am
Every one of these stories – and there are many — just break my heart and make me ask so many questions. How can any child/person be so cruel? What motivates them? What is wrong in their lives? And it makes me so sad that the victim sees no other way out. It frightens me every time and encourages a discussion with my 16 year old son to make sure he’s okay and doing everything right online.

- - mom19782016 said
  - 26 Jan 2018
    11:38 am
Geez, this is what makes me so scared of social media and mobile phones. I imagine it is really hard to monitor every single entry stroke a kid makes and it’s all dependent on your child telling you if they are being bullied or not. We really need some clear guidelines from schools and the police about how to navigate online bullying. Banning apps and having schools take a hard line on allowing mobile phones would be useful in my opinion.

- - mom206279 said
  - 25 Jan 2018
    9:28 am
How awful for her mother that she reported it yo the school and nothing happend. These girls deserve to have their own lives destroyed from this.

- - Ellen said
  - 25 Jan 2018
    7:59 am
How tragic ! Hope this charge turns the life and the attitude of these girls around

- - ashna9 said
  - 24 Jan 2018
    10:52 pm
It’s about time younger people were bought to account for their bullying ways. Bullying is not harmless!

- - nealsq said
  - 24 Jan 2018
    5:49 pm
my son was bullied for a long time and his teacher didn’t believe it was happening, the next year he had a new teacher and she had it stamped out in a day.
- mom93821 replied
  
  26 Jan 2018 , 6:35 am
  Glad to read that another teacher was alert and aware and proactive in managing bullying. A good outcome for your child.
- - mom90758 said
  - 24 Jan 2018
    5:43 pm
Too many kids don’t realize how bad their words can hurt other kids.

- - nadine_hill said
  - 24 Jan 2018
    1:58 pm
Absolutely appalling and tragic – serious steps need to be taken to stop this from happening to more beautiful, innocent young people!

- - mom93821 said
  - 24 Jan 2018
    1:20 pm
This is just so tragic and so sad and steps do need to be taken to stop bullying. I have recently been on a page where there was a lot of negativity and bullying from adults to other adults. It appalled me and I promptly left the page along with many others. The admins did manage and did deal with the issues – but it still appalled and saddened me.