Bloomington teen suicide may have been a result of being bullied www.privateofficer.com

 

Bloomington IN May 14 2012  Police continue to investigate whether bullying was a factor in a teen’s suicide this week.

Bloomington High School North Sophomore, Torie Swoape died Monday night. There’s a lot of speculation over whether bullying contributed to Swoape’s decision to take her life, even though police maintain they’ve found no direct evidence to support that.

Meanwhile, Monroe County Community School Corporation administrators have spent hours reviewing their bullying and harassment programs to determine what’s most effective.

“It’s something that we’ve asked ourselves all week,” she says. “And it’s something that we’ve focused on all year is the bullying and the harassment, but when you have a student that takes her own life that really calls into question ‘what else did we miss, how do we keep this from happening in the future’ because losing a student is extremely difficult, and extremely difficult for the parents, and you feel so much empathy for them and yet you can’t walk in their shoes.”

The district is working on plans for next year, which Bergeson says will most likely include community outreach.