Liam Taylor - Bullied Teen Commits Suicide in Front of her Family

Summary: 18-year-old Brandy Vela was a senior in high school. Her room is now covered in post-it notes from family and friends. She committed suicide after being relentlessly bullied for years. People made fun of her for her weight. They cyberbullied her and left her rude messages. Although she never responded, they still came at her for years with all of these attacks. She changed her phone number, and took the situation to the police, but the local police department told her that they could do nothing to help. Her sister knew something was wrong when she received a text from Brandy, saying "I love you so much, please remember that, and I'm sorry for everything." When her sister and the rest of Brandy's family arrived home, they discovered Brandy with a gun pointing toward her chest. They told her not to pull the trigger, and unfortunately, she refused to listen.

Analysis: This article was written on December 1, 2016 by CNN, a reliable news source. This was an unfortunate event, and I think the author mainly wrote the article to get the word out about this situation. I agree, and I think everyone needs to realize how harmful social media and cyberbullying can actually be. Cyberbullying is such a big issue because it leads to even bigger issues, like suicide. So many people don't realize that what they do can take away the life of another. And frankly, teen suicide rates are way higher than they should be. Not all are caused from cyberbullying, but a large portion of them are. This is a prominent issue nowadays, and I think the author was trying to bring light to that situation, and I hope more and more people realize what their actions can do, and they will try to think before they take any form of action against someone.

Synthesis: This whole situation reminds me a lot of the slavery movement, and I'm not claiming that many slaves committed suicide, I'm taking about the cyberbullying aspect. People who bully others over the internet, and people who owned and mistreated slaves have a lot in common, because they don't ever stop to think about how their actions so deeply affected another persons life. I think, especially in this crazy 2016 that it's been, we all need to stop and think about what we do and how it affects everyone around us.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/01/health/teen-suicide-cyberbullying-trnd/index.html