Suicide of Rebecca Sedwick

Rebecca Ann Sedwick was a 12-year-old student at Crystal Lake Middle School in Lakeland, Florida. She and her family were originally from Sebring, Florida. While dealing with depression and anxiety, she engaged in self-mutilation by cutting and was at one point hospitalized for three days. After an incident in a school hallway with another student, her mother removed her from public school, deactivated her social media accounts, and took away her mobile phone, and Sedwick was homeschooled for a period.

When Sedwick returned to the public school system at a different school, her mobile phone privileges were restored and she opened accounts on apps including Kik, Ask.fm, and Voxer. Screenshots later surfaced showing anonymous messages sent to her on Ask.fm, including statements telling her that nobody cared about her and that she should die. The investigation determined that as the bullying intensified, Sedwick began having suicidal thoughts, which reportedly started roughly a year before her death. New conflicts with students at school were also documented, and she was withdrawn from public school in February 2013.

A search of Sedwick's mobile phone and computer after her death revealed internet searches related to body weight and to overdosing on Advil. Her phone contained pictures of razor blades against her arms, and her phone's wallpaper depicted her head resting near a railroad track. She had changed her display name on one app to "That Dead Girl" and sent a message to a 12-year-old friend in North Carolina stating she was "jumping" and could not take it anymore. A media investigation later found that, about a week before her death, she received messages asking why she was still alive and telling her to kill herself.

On September 9, 2013, Sedwick was found dead after jumping from an abandoned cement plant silo tower. At the time, she was a seventh-grade student at Crystal Lake Middle School.

On October 14, 2013, two minor girls were charged with aggravated stalking in connection with an argument over a boy Sedwick had been dating, in relation to allegations of bullying. These charges were later dropped due to a lack of evidence.

Following her death, Sedwick's mother established the Rebecca Sedwick Funeral Fund and Anti-Bullying Campaign to raise funds for funeral costs and to support anti-bullying and youth mental health programs, with excess funds designated for The Jaylens Challenge Foundation, a local nonprofit focused on bullying awareness and prevention. Sedwick's family later filed a lawsuit related to her death.