A young girl took her own life after she was reportedly cyber-bullied.
“This is a little girl, an angel who’s shouting for help,” said Glenda Molina, mother of Gabrielle Molina, 12. “She wants to have peace.”
Media reports said Molina was bullied by her classmates at I.S. 109 and that on Wednesday, May 22, she hung herself in her bedroom.
“We are deeply saddened by [this] death,” said Principal Karleen Adam-Comrie.
Police have classified the incident as a suicide in the ongoing investigation.
Friends of the girl told the New York Daily News that Molina got into a fistfight with another girl, which was videotaped and posted on YouTube, and that Molina had a history of cutting herself. Her mother told the paper other students called Molina derogatory names.
“How many victims of bullying should come so that nobody gets bullied anymore?” Anastasia Katayeva wrote on a Facebook page dedicated both to Molina’s memory and to ending cyber-bullying.
Others wrote that Molina’s bullies should be brought to justice and the world is a sadder place without her in it.
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott visited the Queens Village school after the incident. He also spoke with Molina’s parents. The school has set up a crisis team to offer counseling to students and staff.
The Department of Education did not comment on grounds the incident is a police matter.
RECOMMENDED STORIES
- Astoria teens charged in apparent mob attack caught on video
- Queens teen takes on intolerance
- Legislation tackles cyberbullying
