Teens condemn suicide of “cyberbullied” Fil-Am girl

CEBU, Philippines - Some teen web users condemned the death of 12-year-old Gabrielle Molina, a Filipino-American in New York who killed herself in her room after allegedly being a victim of cyberbullying by her classmates.

“Disheartening siya, (It’s disheartening.)” said Mary Antonniette Enojo, a high school student from Dumaguete City, blasting authorities of Molina’s school for not taking quick action on the issue.

“Why did it take too long? Where were the teachers and administration of that school when that happened? Surely rumors about the fights and bullying reached their ears,” she said.

Enojo added talking about cyberbullying isn’t enough, and that students “don’t listen to the talks and forums about it.”

“As a suggestion, those who do the anti-bullying talks and forums should not be simply just talking; they should be reaching out, too,” she said.

She also urged school authorities to act fast and accordingly once they hear rumors or suspicions about students getting bullied, whether physically or online.

“But most definitely, it should start at home,” Enojo stressed, adding that parents “should have the time to tell their kids” that cyberbullying is wrong.

Lissa-Patricia Duch, a teenage anti-bullying advocate, blames society for Molina’s death.

“In some cases, people bully other people because of insecurities or jealousy. That’s when we know we have ourselves to blame,” she said in an interview.

She added that some bullies are such because “hurting other people is their form of self-defense” and they want to put up a “tough figure.”

Duch hopes that government officials will pay serious attention to the problem of cyberbullying.

“It gets more serious through time, to the extent that teens kill themselves due to the pain that they feel,” she said.

She also urged netizens, especially students, to be sensitive to other people’s feelings and to be “careful with what they post and say to other people.”

“It may not completely stop all of the bullies from hurting other people, but we will be able to minimize the number of bullies and victims,” she said.

However, Duch pointed out that passing even an “improved” version of RA 10175 or the Anti-Cybercrime Law is not a solution to cyberbullying.

“When I first learned about the law, all I saw were protests against it. Instead of trying to solve problems, a cybercrime law may even be the cause of more people saying meaner things online as they express their thoughts about the law,” she said.

Meanwhile, Lurlyn Carmona, an avid social media user, said that the best thing to do is to keep people aware about Molina’s case, adding that it’s the “first step to solving any problem.”

Gabrielle Molina was found dead inside her room after her classmates allegedly uploaded a video on YouTube showing her being beaten up by a former friend, entitled “Gabby’s Fight.”

Her mother Glenda, who described her as a “smart student”, said their family complained about the video but it was not taken down. Her father George, on the other hand, said that the school “failed to address the incident quickly.”

A report from Daily Mail Online on Friday said that apart from the video, Molina experienced “relentless online bullying,” with her classmates allegedly branding her a “slut” and telling her “she looked like she had Down’s Syndrome.”— Raffy Cabristante, Silliman University intern/MIT (FREEMAN)