Author Topic: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP  (Read 9006 times)

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Offline chitoryu12

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #30 on: January 29, 2014, 10:39:48 pm »
Another forum has been looking more closely into this, and it's starting to smell fishy.

There's no primary source for this. You'd imagine that an 11-year-old being bullied into near-suicide would have some kind of news coverage, even local. Especially if so much of the internet is discussing it; even if the news didn't cover it initially, the amount of attention it's gotten would have sparked SOMETHING by now. Especially since RED Talent Management, who handle some of the voice actors, have promised support. But there's not a single story from any news site anywhere to back this up. I don't think anyone's even found a newspaper article.

There's nothing but non-news sites (including Equestria Daily) reposting the story, plus a Go Fund Me page taking donations. Call me paranoid, but I'm getting concerned about a scam.

Edit: Also, there seems to be inconsistency in the story even from the parents of the kid: it's been simultaneously claimed that he attempted suicide after his peers bullied him for being a brony and that he attempted suicide after getting into a fight with his brother.
« Last Edit: January 30, 2014, 12:03:41 am by chitoryu12 »
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Offline Caitshidhe

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #31 on: January 30, 2014, 12:35:58 am »
If this is true, it is TERRIBLE. Bullying someone to the point of suicide is a horrible, horrible thing for all the obvious reasons.

If it ISN'T true, I honestly think it's even worse. It's taking advantage of the sympathy of others and the reality of a horrible endemic problem in today's youth, and making money on it.
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Offline chitoryu12

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #32 on: January 30, 2014, 01:07:59 am »
Apparently Tara Strong still has her tweet up about talking to the kid herself, but the other voice actors who got involved have been deleting their own stuff about it. It makes me even more suspicious as to whether or not this story is real.
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Offline Cerim Treascair

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #33 on: January 30, 2014, 01:12:33 am »
When it comes to pony, I've got something of a rule of thumb (rule of hoof?) for it:  Has Nicole Oliver gotten involved to a large extent? Yes? It's legit.
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Offline chitoryu12

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #34 on: January 30, 2014, 01:23:19 am »
When it comes to pony, I've got something of a rule of thumb (rule of hoof?) for it:  Has Nicole Oliver gotten involved to a large extent? Yes? It's legit.

She's flooding her Twitter with stuff. In regards to one person on Equestria who claims to be a family friend, they've so far admitted to having never met Michael in person.

Furry News Network claims that a press release was made, but nobody has been able to find one.
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Offline Cerim Treascair

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #35 on: January 30, 2014, 02:58:14 am »
You can be a friend of the family without knowing everyone personally.  I can think of three for my own branch of the family, but she's never met a good few of my cousins.  That doesn't disqualify her from not being a friend of the family.

As for Furry News Network, I've found them to be sketchy on details frequently.


Nicole Oliver though... mrgh... that doesn't bode well.  Either it IS legit, or she's been duped.  I don't like the idea of the latter.
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Offline Dakota Bob

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #36 on: January 30, 2014, 04:51:23 am »
If it is fake, they picked a good fanbase to scam, always something on EgQ they ask people to contribute towards.

Offline chitoryu12

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #37 on: January 30, 2014, 10:38:05 am »
It's just that in this day and age, something like this would get at least some level of news coverage. Cyberbullying is a serious issue today, and an 11-year-old leaving himself hospitalized due to a bullying-induced suicide attempt would get at least local news. The story has gotten a ton of attention and is being repeated around the internet, and people from the show are pledging support. All of that would make it very likely that some kind of legitimate source would crop up at all. But the story seems to exist purely on MLP-related sites and non-news sites like Tumblr and Twitter that repeat it. The kid has a Facebook, but it's just two pictures (one of which is from the article) and one recent comment on a picture that's been kept public. It seriously looks like a bare bones Facebook page that was rapidly thrown together with the story to provide credibility.
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Offline Captain Jack Harkness

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #38 on: January 30, 2014, 02:00:45 pm »
It's just that in this day and age, something like this would get at least some level of news coverage. Cyberbullying is a serious issue today, and an 11-year-old leaving himself hospitalized due to a bullying-induced suicide attempt would get at least local news. The story has gotten a ton of attention and is being repeated around the internet, and people from the show are pledging support. All of that would make it very likely that some kind of legitimate source would crop up at all. But the story seems to exist purely on MLP-related sites and non-news sites like Tumblr and Twitter that repeat it. The kid has a Facebook, but it's just two pictures (one of which is from the article) and one recent comment on a picture that's been kept public. It seriously looks like a bare bones Facebook page that was rapidly thrown together with the story to provide credibility.

Just to nitpick, I think I've heard that it was real life bullying, not cyberbullying.  Not that it would necessarily detract from things.

Also, you keep on saying "This should make local news!"  Well, I'm honestly not sure which locality that's supposed to be, so I'm not really able to dig.
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Offline Witchyjoshy

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #39 on: January 30, 2014, 02:12:59 pm »
Not to mention that for every sensationalized news report, there's a few things that go unannounced, so just because it's not in the news doesn't mean it's necessarily fake.

That being said, if this is a scam (which I'm hoping quite a bit it isn't) then there's going to be a major backlash.
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Offline mellenORL

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #40 on: January 30, 2014, 04:09:41 pm »
I will go ahead and chime in, since Chit breached this first. I have yet to find a single media or public records citing of this story. Google it for yourselves. It's all reposts on various game and fan and blog sites. It's a scam. Lots of very nice people are naively driving traffic to the gofundme page. There is no way in hell that an 11 year old can attempt suicide and be so critically injured as that and it NOT end up in some form of media report from conventional sources.
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Offline Caitshidhe

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #41 on: January 30, 2014, 04:28:26 pm »
Considering how critical the situation is supposed to be--that the boy apparently has a good chance of not making it and if he does will likely be permanently brain damaged--it does seem a little suspicious that nobody seems to know who this boy is. Cyberbullying AND real-world bullying are both equally becoming big deals and when something tragic happens as a result of either, there's usually some kind of local outcry that ripples into a national one. There's usually someone--a family member or friend, SOMEBODY--coming forward to give updates on the victim's condition for the people who obviously care a great deal about them, enough to donate money to the family.

Is it POSSIBLE that there was no local news on it at all, no accessible records (police blotter, maybe?) regarding an eleven-year-old boy and a suicide attempt? That nobody in the area knows about it or, if they do, won't talk about it? That even the family themselves don't want to talk about it (I mean, it IS uncomfortable and traumatic to deal with, after all) and are trying to keep their grief as private as they can? It's even possible that the family isn't even running the Go Fund Me page--that it's being done by someone on their behalf or, worse, that it has nothing to do with them and it's capitalizing on someone's very real grief to scam others.

But let's remember what this site was originally about: skepticism. That's an AWFUL LOT of lightning striking in the same place. I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying it's very unlikely.
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Offline Captain Jack Harkness

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #42 on: January 30, 2014, 04:42:04 pm »
Considering how critical the situation is supposed to be--that the boy apparently has a good chance of not making it and if he does will likely be permanently brain damaged--it does seem a little suspicious that nobody seems to know who this boy is. Cyberbullying AND real-world bullying are both equally becoming big deals and when something tragic happens as a result of either, there's usually some kind of local outcry that ripples into a national one. There's usually someone--a family member or friend, SOMEBODY--coming forward to give updates on the victim's condition for the people who obviously care a great deal about them, enough to donate money to the family.

Is it POSSIBLE that there was no local news on it at all, no accessible records (police blotter, maybe?) regarding an eleven-year-old boy and a suicide attempt? That nobody in the area knows about it or, if they do, won't talk about it? That even the family themselves don't want to talk about it (I mean, it IS uncomfortable and traumatic to deal with, after all) and are trying to keep their grief as private as they can? It's even possible that the family isn't even running the Go Fund Me page--that it's being done by someone on their behalf or, worse, that it has nothing to do with them and it's capitalizing on someone's very real grief to scam others.

But let's remember what this site was originally about: skepticism. That's an AWFUL LOT of lightning striking in the same place. I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying it's very unlikely.

Plot Twist:  It's some kind of sick scam by PinkiePony.
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Offline chitoryu12

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #43 on: January 30, 2014, 08:18:07 pm »
Someone on the forum I'm on who initially posited that it's a scam has suggested that the suicide attempt may be real, but the story of bronies is a lie to draw in donations from the brony community.
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Offline Caitshidhe

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Re: 11 year old attempts suicide after being bullied for liking MLP
« Reply #44 on: January 30, 2014, 09:00:08 pm »
That's the worst possible scenario. That a real kid was bullied or was sufficiently depressed so as to attempt (and nearly succeed in) suicide, and that someone is capitalizing on it for pure selfish gain.
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