Rosalie Avila suicide death: To what degree are school officials culpable for the hanging death of a 13 year old eight grade girl at California’s Mesa View Middle School?
Rosalie Avila a 13 year old Southern California teen is expected to be taken taken off life support Monday night at 9pm, following the school girl hanging herself last week following unrelenting bullying.
‘My daughter is a victim of bullying … the world lost a treasure,’ Charlene Avila wrote on a GoFundMe page after the death of her child, Rosalie, an eighth grader at Mesa View Middle School in Yucaipa.
The girl’s family now plan to donate vital body organs to needy individuals CBS Los Angeles reported.
The teen’s death follows Rosalie being found hanging in her bedroom Tuesday evening after leaving a note describing the torment she’d endured. Wrote the girl, ‘sorry mom and dad, I love you,’ adding, ‘Sorry, Mom, you’re gonna find me like this,’ before hanging herself.
One family member alleged the school district was aware the girl had been bullied for years.
Told Rosalie’s cousin, Jazmine Arias, via KTLA, ‘This is becoming an epidemic in our youth and it is unacceptable. Bullying needs to stop.’
Rosalie’s mom told of her daughter keeping a journal documenting the torment she’d endured along with having been in counseling.
Told the mother, ‘She kept a journal or a diary of the people who hurt her and people that called her ugly and just putting her down.’
Told Rosalie’s father, Freddie Avila via abc7, ‘I remember a couple nights she’d come home, telling me that the kids are calling her names about her teeth. I go, ”You have braces, honey, don’t worry. The braces are going to come off,” and she said, ”Yeah, but my teeth are straight and they’re still making fun of me,”
The couple said their daughter would often cut her wrists.
Not necessarily understood is what action school officials had taken, if any to ward off the degree of abuse the child suffered.
The family says Rosalie’s death hasn’t deterred her tormentors, who have now turned on them. According to KCBS, someone sent Avila’s parents an image on social media that read, ‘Hey mom. Next time don’t tuck me in this,’ with a photo of a bed, ‘Tuck me in THIS,’ with an edited image of Rosalie’s face pasted over someone pointing to an open grave.
Responding to Rosalie’s hanging, the Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified School District released a news release:
‘No one can fathom the heartbreak and confusion that we are certain many of our students and their families are feeling right now, especially the families of those students that have been most closely struck by this event,’ the Dec. 1 statement read.
The school district has placed a link to suicide prevention information on its website, and crisis counselors have been sent to schools.
Rosalie Avila suicide death follows rising trend in suicides for teen boys and girls.
In the interim, Rosalie’s parents have turned their daughter’s journal over to the police, demanding that the school district to do something about the bullying, saying enough wasn’t done to prevent this tragedy.
‘I did everything I’m supposed to do as a father, and these people did not respond, because those bullies are still at the school,’ lamented Freddie Avila. ‘They’re still there, and my daughter’s gone.’
It is thought some of the bullying Rosalie experienced had been filmed and shared on social media.
Rosalie’s death is part of a startling rise in suicides across the United States, particularly among teenage girls. In 2015, the suicide rate hit a 40-year high for girls ages 15 to 19, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.
Some research indicates a correlation between social media use and anxiety in young adults.
Come late Monday afternoon, Rosalie’s gofundme page had raised just on $30,000.
