In September, a 13-year-old girl in Florida named Hope Witsell hanged herself. Raised in a rural Florida suburb, she was the only child of a church-going couple who met in the post office where they’re both employed. “She often went fishing with her father in her big, white-framed sunglasses,” according to the excellent reporting in this story in the St. Petersburg Times.
Kendall-thanks for making this known. Parents need to be aware of this.
I was watching a show about Teen Moms on MTV last night and noticed ads warning kids about this very thing. I hope they listen. (And I hope they’re watching the Teen Moms show, too, come to that!)
This happened within our metro area. Very sad, and a sobering reminder for all of us who are parents (I have a daughter who is roughly the same age as this poor kid).
Our daughters’ youth group had a long discussion about this case, and the issues involved. My wife had a long discussion with both of our daughters, which we repeated as a family over the dinner table. I can only hope and pray that parents and kids will wake up, and remember that they do not need to participate in the toxic aspects of our culture, that they in fact must not, and that they seek every possible aid in resisting its poisons.
I amazes me that young people seem compelled to put their every thought, no matter how personal, on Myspace or Facebook where the whole world can have access to it. As the father of a 21 year old son and a 19 year old daughter, I’ve see it at first hand. My wife opened her own Facebook account just so she could keep track of such things.
Very sad story indeed. But we shouldn’t say that cell phones or being online are destructing young people. Why she decided to sent her nude photos for her boyfriend? I think that we should find the answer into this question. As Evan Miller said I am really shocked to see such websites like Facebook full of provocative your people, especially young girls photos. Parents should more communicate with their children and explain them about moral things. Anyway it is only my opinion. Thanks a lot for sharing this painful but teaching story. I hope that such accident would not happen again.
Regards, Kate Thompson from mobile development