Hope’s Warriors: A mother’s attempt to stop bullying

A very troubling trend that seems to have started in all schools is that of bullying. As times are advancing, more and more methods of bullying are being adopted by children. This includes cell phones, texting and social networks. Over the past two years, the suicide rate of children who are victims of bullying has increased. One example is the tragic story of Hope Witsell.

Hope’s bullying started with a simple cell phone picture and ultimately ended with her decision to commit suicide, at the young age of 13. One day, Hope decided to send a picture of herself to her then boyfriend. The photo, however, ended up in the wrong hands, who distributed it across the city. Hope’s bullying started with verbal attacks. After a while, the bullying became physical.

Hope’s friend, Lexi Leber says that, “She was afraid to walk alone, she was afraid someone would do something to her, like verbally attack her so she would always have someone with her. We had to make like a wall, we had people surrounding her, and she had to be in the middle because people would come by and try to hit her and push her into a locker or something.”

Things remained mellow over the summer holidays but, once school resumed, the bullying became worse. Finally on 12th September, Hope decided to hang herself from her canopy bed.

Hope’s mother, Donna Witsell, has started a group called Hope’s Warriors that will combat bullying and save other mothers from feeling the agony and pain that she feels after losing Hope. Donna said that, “It happened to my daughter, it can happen to yours too. No one is untouchable. No one is untouchable.”