KY - REAGAN CARTER - Bullied Girl Commits OD Suicide 12/2014

bflocket

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I saw this (very sad) story on our "local" news this morning.
I've never really looked through it much, but I knew WS had a forum related to bullying and thought I should say something about this girl here.

Her mother is around my age (a year/grade older than me). I personally couldn't imagine what it would be like to have a kid to raise. And I definitely couldn't imagine losing one, especially of their own volition.

Bardstown girl who committed suicide leaves uplifting message from the grave
FOX-41
Louisville, KY
3/14/2016
A Bardstown girl was bullied to the breaking point and she left a haunting message from the grave.

It's a message one therapist wants all parents will share with their children.
Fighting back the tears, Hack explains how months of repeated bullying at Bardstown Middle School and online drove the seventh grader to the breaking point. They were messages filled with comments too obscene for us to repeat.*

But not even her family or friends knew just how much Reagan was hurting. Yet even in her despair, the 12-year-old was still thinking of others.
...Melanie agonizes over every single day, but hopes sharing Reagan's message will spare other families her pain.

"Put the knife down, put the razor down, put the gun down, whatever you're using, put it down," Reagan says in the video. "Because you have way more to live for."

*I can only imagine what they said to/about her. That's sick.

If you try to look for anything about her online, use quotes around her name. Otherwise you just come up with things about the 1980 elections.
 
Bardstown mother blames bullying for daughter's suicide
WLKY-32
Louisville, KY
1/1/2015
On the outside, Reagan Carter looked like your typical 12-year -old. “She was popular. She always had friends coming over,” Hack remembered. “She took lots of selfies. She loved Starbucks; she loved music.”

Reagan didn't show the typical signs of someone about to kill herself, according to her mother. She was making plans for the future and wasn't depressed, but ultimately the harassment ate away at her.
Hack said she knew her daughter had been harassed by a group of girls at Bardstown Middle school, but she didn't realize how bad it was. The bullying happened in person and online.
“When I asked her why, she said she was tired of everybody hating her,” said her mother, Melanie Hack, as her voice broke. “And that was the last thing she said.”
 
Obituary: Harley Reagan Carter, 12, Bardstown
Nelson County Gazette
Bardstown, KY
12/26/2014
Harley Reagan Carter, 12, of Bardstown, died Tuesday, Dec. 23rd, 2014, at Kosair’s Children Hospital in Louisville. She was born in Honolulu March 3, 2002.
She was a 7th grade student at Bardstown Middle School. Her spunky personality made a lot friends during her life. She was not only a loving friend but a caring sibling as well. She enjoyed being around all animals...
 
Thank you bflocket for starting this thread. Reagan seems to have been a person I would have liked to be friends with.

RIP dear Reagan. The world will miss you.
 
Thank you bflocket for starting this thread. Reagan seems to have been a person I would have liked to be friends with.

RIP dear Reagan. The world will miss you.

I remember seeing the obit I posted and heard (mainly via word-of-mouth with no real details) that she'd killed herself.

When I was growing up in the area, we didn't really have the internet (1997 HS-grad). My dad used it since he's a professor at a decent college. But it was nothing compared to what the internet of today (or even a decade ago) resembles.

All we (high school students) heard of it back then was when we were discussing "new technology" in school. And we knew that the new technology likely wouldn't make it to BFE, KY for quite a spell.
I didn't really mess with it until the early-2000's when I discovered eBay. But once I discovered it, it became like a drug that had the addictive-potential of heroin and cocaine combined and quantified.

So I'm trying to imagine what life would be like if we had Facebook, MySpace, eBay, Amazon or up-to-the-minute news available on a computer in my own home.
Good Lord, how different things would have been!.. (for better or for worse)

When I finally "caught on" to it, it was almost always adults (or college students at the youngest) that were really using it. So it's kind of hard for me to imagine a girl her age being online. I've seen some of my friends' kids knowing how to get online and do all kinds of stuff at Kindergarten-ish age and it just blows my [expletive] mind.

I wish I knew how we could protect kids from online bullies/predators when the kid "gets" the net more than their parents do?
Ideally, I'd love to have the internet available to all without censorship or restrictions of ANY kind (no matter how raunchy or sick that would amount to.)
But I'm unsure of how much of an online presence "little kids" should be allowed to have...
 
This is so sad. I have a teenager who has been on the receiving end of some of these messages and I have forwarded them to the bullies parents. Dealing with private school parents, we were fortunate the parents cared enough to do something about it.

I also talked with my child about why bullies do this stuff. We had the 'hurt people hurt people' discussion several times and I explained how the bully really doesn't like themself so they lash out at others.

Helping a child to build self worth is a more important part of parenting than one realizes. Counseling is also important, especially for parents who may need some help with dealing with a childs esteem problems.

I wish these kids realized how suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem and they should always talk to a trusted adult if they feel like hurting themself.
 
They are having a blood drive for "Reagan's Voice Foundation" in Bardstown in early April. Apparently, one of the things Reagan had wanted to do once she got big enough was to donate blood. So her mom is having a blood drive in her honor. That's so sad.

It's in my (physical) local paper that I have in front of me and I'm too tired from typing all afternoon to type it out for you, so I took a pic with my camera and if it is legible, I will add it in a bit.

It will be Saturday 4/2 from 10am-2pm at the Getz Whiskey Museum near at 114 North Fifth St in Bardstown (KY 40004). That's b/w St Joe's Cathedral and Bardstown HS.
 

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