Hope Witsell

             Hope Witsell

Hope Witsell was a 13 year old who grew up in Sundance, Florida. It all started in the Spring 2009, when Hope send a nude picture of her upper body to the boy she liked. Another girl borrowed his phone, found the image and forwarded it to students from six schools in the area. Before Hope could do anything about it the picture had gone viral. The photo made Hope a target. People would walk up to her and call her whore and slut. She hid her pain from her family. Online her friends said bullies writes horrible things about Hope, anonymous bullies created a Hope hater page to taunt her. In school, her friends formed a human shield because people would try to hit her or push her into the lockers. Her parents didn't know what was going on.

It was on a Saturday as school was starting, Hope helped her dad mow the lawn, ate dinner with her parents and then went upstairs to her room. Her parents turned on a TV show and when they finished watching the program, her Mom went upstairs to kiss her goodnight that went she found her. She screamed for her husband as she was putting her on the bed and doing CPR. It was too late, Hope was already dead. The 13 year old hung herself from her bed with her favorite scarves.

The day before she died, Hope met with a social worker at school. A spokesperson for the school said the social worker was concerned about her and that Hope may have been trying to harm herself. So, she had her signed a no-harm contract, in which Hope promise to speak to an adult if she was considering hurting herself. Her mom said she was never told about the contract, she found it crumpled in the garbage in Hope’s bedroom after she had died. The bullying was not over. After Hope’s suicide,her sister found more cruel comments posting on Hope’s Myspace page like, "Oh my god did she really kill herself, I can’t believe that whore did that." Obscene things written by children, Hope Witsell though it was only one way to escape it.   

Immediacy: She didn’t think about what would have happened when she sent the picture to the boy, she just did it.

Permanence: Even if she made the boy delete it, it doesn’t matter because a lot of different kids have the picture and although she died people out there may still have the picture somewhere.

Lack of Control: Once the picture got out she can never get it back.

Advice: Even though she is dead, if she were still alive my advice will be don’t send out any obscene pictures, be careful who send pictures to.

Link to video>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU7QO80jxLI

Link to article>http://www.puresight.com/Real-Life-Stories/hope-witsell.html