Teenage girls admit to bullying suicide victim

TWO girls have been ordered by a judge to carry out four months of social and educational tasks after admitting to bullying a schoolmate who committed suicide.

Carla Diaz, a 14-year-old girl, committed suicide on April 11, 2013, by throwing herself off a cliff in Gijon, Asturias.

The teenagers admitted that they had bullied Carla constantly during 2012 and the first few months of 2013. Although others joined in, the pair were the ring-leaders.

An Oviedo Public Prosecutor explained that the tasks aim to improve the girls’ sense of empathy, ability to control impulses and assume responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

After Carla’s death, her mother Montserrat Magnien found out that her daughter had been insulted on a daily basis at school and on internet sites Facebook, Tuenti and Ask.fm. She also found out that the girls had thrown toilet water at her daughter and attacked her outside the school premises.

When she began to suspect something was happening to her daughter at school, Montserrat spoke to the centre but was told it was just child’s play.

Now the mother states: “Nobody can give me Carla back but if I give up, these things will keep on happening.”

As the school failed to notify Carla’s parents that the bullying was going on, her mother’s lawyer declared that the next step will be to sue the school.

“This sentence will shut up a lot of people who said I was crazy,” Montserrat said with a shaky voice. Although she was pleased that the girls had admitted to the bullying, Carla’s mother considered the punishment to be ridiculous and declared she would fight for laws concerning minors to be changed.