A 13-year-old girl from Tacoma, Washington, jumped from a bridge onto a busy interstate after her father shamed her on social media. The girl’s father cut off her long locks of black hair and filmed the young teen’s reaction. The man then posted the video to social media. However, new reports indicate that the public shaming didn’t end there. In fact, students at Giaudrone Middle School say that the young girl was also humiliated publicly at school by administration.
Izabel Laxamana was a 13-year-old girl who died in a tragic suicide this past weekend. The girl’s father had posted a public shaming video to Instagram of the girl being punished for “getting messed up” twice. The video showed the girl standing next to a pile of hair that her father had cut off as punishment for disobeying him. Now, many are questioning if social media shaming should be utilized by parents as an effective means of discipline. However, it seems that there may be more to the girl’s suicide than just the Instagram video.
Since the story was posted, a number of comments have been made regarding the incident with students at the school, noting that the day of Lizzy’s suicide, she was humiliated at school by the principal.
“After he cut off her hair he burned her clothes and smashed her guitar. He made her go to school the next day and in front of the entire school, dressed in boys clothes, at what should have been a happy day for her. He had the principal announce during the assembly that she had to withdraw from running for student council president because she disobeyed her father. She should have been giving her speech on why she should be president. She was crying and asked him to stop and was told to wait in the hallway.”
Another student’s parent notes that Izabel was forced to drop out of the running for student body president the day of the suicide and was crying in the hall during the announcement.
“There’s more to this story. I talked to her teacher. She was shamed in front of her peers by the principal and forced to withdraw her running for ASB Student Body President. She begged him to stop and he said wait in the hallway … She was getting bullied by family, peers, and administrator at school. No wonder she saw no way out.”
A parent that was helping in Izabel’s science class says the girl was crying the entire class.
“If I had know what izzy was crying about in scicence class when I was there, I would of taken her home with me and called police. Her beautiful hair looked like it had be cut off with a weed whacker. [sic]”
Another parent claims that the young girl told some of her classmates that she was going to jump off the bridge and that they reported her threats to teachers.
“She had told some of her friends that she was going to jump off the bridge also. Some Students said they informed some teachers about it. This is such a terrible tragedy if she only knew how much people cared for her.”
With so many allegations of various adults knowing there was an issue with Izabel Laxamana leading up to her tragic suicide, we are left to ask ourselves what can be done to prevent this type of tragedy in the future? What more could teachers or administrators done for this child on the day of her death? Should she have been referred to counseling after teachers witnessed her crying all day?
Opinions?
In the past to punish a person was to hit/beat up/kill that person,now it's getting old fashion and most of the laws in most countries forbid that.As she was a citisen of the U.S a highly developed country in most aspects,that was "the only" punishment.Basically you hit it where it bleeds.
"Now your friends are going to laugh at you for doing this/that etc."
To prevent it:
The suffering isn't ended with suicide,because with suicide you make your loved ones suffer.
Again:That's my opinion,everyone has theirs and I respect them even if they're providing an opposite one.