Another teen commits suicide due to bullying, this time close to home. Coquitlam’s shame.

What an ugly country this is turning out to be. Our government is being assailed by other nations for its war on children. Women and their rights are now under attack. People of colour and alternative sexual orientation are openly demeaned by right-wing media. It’s no wonder people are losing their minds and no longer hiding that part of us we used to keep under wraps. Free speech is not so free, after all. That’s why this story is, as a CTV anchor put it, “beyond heartbreaking,”especially realizing it happened so close to home, in Coquitlam.

Fifteen-year-old Amanda Todd posted a YouTube video in September flipping through index cards that tell the story of how she was bullied, beginning when a boy sent a topless picture of her to other students at her school.

She was forced to move schools several times because of the bullying, but the torment never stopped.

“A year past and the guy came back with my new list of friends and school… [he] made a Facebook page. My boobs were his Facebook profile picture,” the cards said.

Todd said she started cutting herself, got involved in drugs and alcohol, and suffered from depression and anxiety. She switched schools again but the bullying followed her and she was cornered by a group of teens.

“A guy then yelled just punch her already, so she did… she threw me to the ground [and] punched me several times,” the cards said.

After the assault, Todd said she laid in a ditch until her father found her, and when she got home she drank bleach.

“I thought I was actually going to die,” she wrote.

Teens online were relentless, saying she deserved it and posted photos of bleach online tagged with her name.

It get worse. Read the whole thing. And watch the accompanying video. It will break your heart, too.

X-posted at Let Freedom Rain