At age of 13 she committed suicide after being brutally raped - so her mother found a letter that revealed the heartbreaking truth
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We were all victims of bullying at one stage or another of our lives.
Perhaps we've seen victims, seen someone being bullied, or we were victims ourselves. Many kids, teenagers and even adults are subject to constant physological and physical bullying on a daily basis in what turns their lives to a living hell.
Cassidy Trevan of Melbourne, Australia, knew it too well.
She was the victim of bullying for long time. The bullying was mostly psychological, but sometimes it became physical.
They called her names, attacked her at school and on the Internet. They even made vandalism acts to her parents' home.
It got so bad that she couldn't go to school anymore. It was too much. Despite conversations with the bullies, nothing has changed.
After she was missing from school for several months, and after receiving support, she decided to give it another try. She started going to school two days a week to get used to it.
The girls who treated her badly apologized. They even wanted to become friends with her now. They asked if she wanted to go with them to the festival.
And of course she wanted to. She was an 'outsider' for so long that although the girls were bad to her, her desire for friendship was greater.
What Cassidy didn't know was that the girls had a much worse plan than one could ever imagine
The girls took Cassidy to a nearby house where they arranged that two adult men will rape her.
The girls sat outside and waited while the two men took turns raping Cassidy. She was 13 years old.
Cassidy reported the incident to the police, but unfortunately the case was closed for lack of evidence. Everyone involved was released.
Cassidy's mother, Linda, moved her daughter to another school, and they also moved with her, but the bullies always found a way to abuse her. They attacked her in stores and even called her mother and asked to speak to her.
Linda did everything she could and still had to watch her daughter's condition deteriorate. Eventually, Cassidy could barely get out of bed.
In December 2015 she committed suicide.
After her suicide, Linda found a letter Cassidy had written. A letter everyone should read. A letter to all those who abuse and practice bullying. A letter to anyone who was a victim of bullying.
Here's what Cassidy wrote:
"I was a student at (the name of the school was omitted) and I was raped by some of the students who are still going to school. I know it sounds like I'm looking for attention but it's the farthest from the truth. I have many reasons to do this and I will explain them.
My goal is to warn others (especially students but also parents) about what happened because I'm worried that if they could do it to me they could do it to other kids like me, or at least try. You have the power to stop it. Remember that the people who did this to me were students in (name was omitted), hard to believe, I know. But that's the truth.
I do not do this in retaliation for the students who raped me, planned the rape, bullied me towards about rape, laughed at me for the rape or something. I also do not do it to get attention as I wrote earlier, I want it to be clear.
I do this because more than 1500 students aged 7-12 are currently attending school and should be warned. I feel that because of what happened to me, and because the school staff did nothing to help me (I'll talk about that later). It is now my duty to warn all of you and make you aware of what has happened. (Not only what you may have heard at school, but what really happened).
But I also do it for myself. I finally want, after a year and a half, to be left alone. It is surprising that so many students at school have heard stories about me and strangely still tell stories about me to this day. I still keep getting messages on Facebook from students I've never met who call me a whore. I went through schools, I moved apartments, and they still contact me and abuse me. I can not stop people from spreading rumors, but I can at least try to spread what really happened because they still talk about it anyway. But as I said, it's mostly for students who are not aware of it and are in danger from other students.
My name is Cassidy Trevan, and I was raped.
If anyone tries it on you, believe me, it's worth fighting. Fight! If not, you'll regret it for the rest of your life, like me. You can do it.
Be careful. Be careful. Take care of yourself".
The letter was published by the Australian Channel 9.
The death of a child or teenager because of bullying is one death too much. No one should feel that way or be a victim of such terrible things that the only way out is to take his own life. We have to work together. Students, parents, teachers, all of them have to work to bring these cases to an end.
No one should feel alone.
Linda's grief would never go away and her daughter would never come back. Linda was silent for a long time, but after finding her daughter's letter, she knew she had to talk about all the terrible things that happened to warn others.
Cassidy's letter has moved hundreds of thousands of people all over the world, and we hope it will continue to reach as many people as possible.