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Teenager Kills Herself In Front Of Parents Following Insistent Bullying
Brandy, a Texas City High School senior, shot herself in the chest in front of her parents and grandparents. Her last text to the family read, “I love you so much just remember that please and I’m so sorry for everything.”
“I was the first one here,” said Jacqueline Vela, Brandy’s older sister. “I heard someone crying so I ran upstairs and I looked in her room and she’s against the wall and she has a gun pointed at her chest and she’s just crying and crying and I’m like, ‘Brandy please don’t, Brandy no,”
Regardless of the family’s words to save her, nothing could help Brandy.
“I was in my parents’ room and I just heard the shot and my dad just yelled, ‘Help me, help me, help me,'” Jacqueline recalled.
Brandy shot herself in the chest, in front of her parents and grandparents and died in hospital.
The Vela family believes Brandy felt helpless after ‘relentless bullying’ from students at her school. Students at the school, would mock Brandy about her weight and tease her. They even made fake dating profiles with her phone number saying she’s giving out sex for free.
These incidents were brought to the attention of the school and the local police department but neither provided any assistance other than telling Brandy that she should change her phone number, which she did.
“I’m glad you got what you wanted. I hope this makes you happy,” Victor Vela, 19, said, talking directly to the bullies he said targeted his little sister.
No arrests have been made in this case of cyber-bullying, however, the family says they have a good idea of who is behind it.
Cathy Warshaw
August 21, 2017 at 3:52 pm
Families need to have open communication with their children. If they see them acting differently, find out why. In this case they knew. The school needs to be accountable for this tragedy as well. From what I recently learned your state of Texas passed Danny’s Law which makes the school and the parents of the bullies accountable. Another child killing themselves is heartbreaking. This type of behaviour has to stop and parents of the bullies absolutely need to be held accountable. My heart goes out to this family and especially Brandy who couldn’t bare living with this pain.
If you want to be part of a movement to stop bullying please stop by http://www.EmpoweringTheYouthOfToday.org and checkout our program. If we are going to change the behaviour of bullies and teach children how to defend themselves we need to start in elementary schools. We are also in the process of making a movie entitled #StopBullyingBeMyFriend showing the effects of childhood bullying on adults that were both the victim and the bully. This will be distributed to schools.