CA - Cyberbullying led to suicide of 14yo Matthew Burdette, 29 Nov 2013

kimi_SFC

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University City High School Student Matthew Burdette was secretly filmed in a school bathroom. The video went viral on social media sites (SnapChat, vine, etc,), and he was cyberbullied & bullied in person for two weeks.

(snip)

Matthew's friends told his parents about a video. They said a classmate had peered over a bathroom stall and recorded Matthew while he was at school.

This led to the fourteen year old taking his own life in November.

I found this story while researching another case. After running a search on WS, and not finding any hits on his name, I'm starting a thread in Matthew's honor :rose:

http://www.10news.com/news/investigations/parents-son-committed-suicide-over-viral-video

Matthew's family hasn't received much in the way of answers. I hope their pursuit of justice is successful. Although nothing will ever bring their precious son back, they are fighting for change to occur at our schools, and within our society. I am behind them 100% - in the quest for justice, for answers, and for progress regarding cyber bullying.

My eldest is 10 and about to enter middle school. I shudder to imagine what she will face in middle and high school. In a day and age where everyone has a smartphone, it seems no place is a safe haven anymore. That is a very scary thought. :moo:



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Teen suicide prompts claim against school district

(snip)

Matthew committed suicide while the family was visiting their cabin in Crestline for Thanksgiving, leaving a note saying he could not “handle school” and had “no friends.”

“Matthew’s once positive and outgoing personality was now visibly wrought with insecurity and depression,” the parents said in the claim.

The parents said they believe that a teacher, administrator or other employees at the school were aware of the video and the bullying and did nothing to protect Matthew or intervene to stop the harassment that ultimately led to his suicide.



http://web.utsandiego.com/news/2014/Jul/14/teen-suicide-prompts-claim-video-school/


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Bathroom video, bullying, led to teen's suicide, parents say (LATimes)

(snip)

The San Diego County district attorney's office declined to say whether the boy who the claim says took the video might face charges under the state's anti-bullying law.

However, a spokesman for the district attorney said a hearing is set for July 23 in juvenile court on the matter.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-bathroom-video-bullying-suicide-20140714-story.html


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when, oh when, are they going to forbid smart phones from being in school. They have NO place in school.
 
I have to respectfully disagree about smartphones being the problem. The focus should be on educating children on empathy. There are so many positive educational uses for these devices, including as calculators, iClicker substitutes, and other tools the app store has. Students may need to communicate with each other via phone or text for schoolwork-related reasons. At college, professors let students use the Internet on their phones for research. Smartphones aren't evil, it's just that we need to educate children and enforce rules on how to properly use them.

Rest in peace, young man.
 
I am glad you started this thread, I was going to myself. The media continues to refer to this case as a bullying case, an embarrassing video case. This is child *advertiser censored* distributed and watched to the point of it going viral. This is clearly against the law, and although it is a good thing that the person who took the video and posted it has been arrested, I question the sites that allowed it to be uploaded. Where is the accountability for these businesses?

A child *advertiser censored* video should never go viral. This was something that all the kids knew was out there and apparently the school discovered was out there. These social media outlets need to be diligent that no one posts illegal videos to their sites. Personally I think it time that schools start to teach students about the internet and social media in such a way that they are educated on the ramifications and dangers of using these sites.

Having a sign in all public bathrooms, locker rooms and dressing rooms where there is a reasonable expectation of privacy that is is illegal to video tape should and must be a law. IMHO
 
This is a very sad case. My heart goes out to his family who obviously loved his so much. It's unfortunate they didn't learn of this before he took his life. They may have been able to do something - move schools, home school, private school. I predict a lawsuit against the school district.
 

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