Sexting-related bullying cited in Hillsborough teen's suicide

RUSKIN — At the end of the school year at Beth Shields Middle School, the taunting became so bad that Hope Witsell's friends surrounded her between classes. They escorted her down hallways like human shields, fending off insults such as "whore" and "slut." A few days before, Hope had forwarded a nude photo of herself to a boy she liked — a practice widely known as "sexting." The image found its way to other students, who forwarded it to their friends. Soon the nude photo was circulating through cell phones at Shields Middle and Lennard High School, according to multiple students at both schools. "Tons of people talk about me behind my back and I hate it because they call me a whore!" Hope wrote in her journal. "And I can't be a whore i'm too inexperienced. more...

http://www.tampabay.com/news/humaninterest/article1054895.ece

“I take 1 step forward & two steps back,” Hope Witsell wrote on her mirror: Her death in September is the second known sexting-related suicide in the country. “Hope certainly did not let on that something was wrong,” her father, Charlie Witsell, said. Hope’s mother, Donna, is in the reflect