9 months ago
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It looks like a cartoon, except it's not funny or cute. Its title, "The Top Six Ways To Kill Piper," literally with a gun, suicide, a good push off a cliff ... you get the picture.
It's especially ugly because Piper is a real girl.
"It goes beyond funny stuff. It really really hurts my feeling. If somebody could hate me that much that they would make a video about me like that, it makes me feel like really bad," says Piper Smith.
Piper is a sixth grader at Elk Plain School of Choice in Washington State. The girls who allegedly made 'the YouTube video are classmates ages 11 and 12.
And while you may be shocked by this those who work with children are not. According to the National Crime Prevention Council, cyberbullying is the biggest threat kids face especially girls.
The "Queen Bee Syndrome" is so pervasive in school, Hollywood made a movie about it. In "Mean Girls" popular, yet insecure girls, band together to attack those they deem different.
Some psychologists say this kind of behavior has only gotten more vicious because it can play out online anonymously.
Psychotherapist Karol Ward says, "Often teenagers have a deep sense of self hatred and often lack of self esteem that they're not even consciously aware of and what happens is they place that on someone who they consider different from them."
Ward says Piper Smith did exactly the right thing. She stood up to the bullies, exposed them and, most likely saved herself more emotional pain.
Ward says it is important the mean girls face consequences. The school did take some kind of action against the girls, although, for privacy reasons, it won't say what kind of action. Police were called but, police decided no charges would be filed because there was no malice on the part of those girls.
