CELINA REBECCA OKWUONE - 11 yo - Port St Lucie FL

Port St Lucie FL ----The family of the 11-year-old Catholic school student
who committed suicide said the girl suffered from years of bullying.
Celina
Rebecca Okwuone hanged herself in her closet on May 20, police said.
Investigators said they found no indication she was under "above-average
pressure" for a child of her age. Her parents disagreed in a statement
released Thursday."We are disturbed by the police department's
findings … that there was no crime against our daughter," Dr. Celestine
and Ileana Okwuone wrote in the statement. "We know that harm was done,
whether it can be proven in a court of law or not."Celina
attended St. Anastasia Catholic School in Fort Pierce. The Okwuones, who
would comment Thursday only through the statement, said they met with
the principal to discuss how the students and some teachers were
treating Celina."We believe the school could have done more to
intervene," the Okwuones said. "These are not your traditional bullies.
The tormenting is more emotional and personal, verbal and sometimes
electronic — but meant to hurt and embarrass. Adults may not be able to
stop bullying from happening once, but they have a responsibility to
create an environment where it is unacceptable."Police said her
diary had entries that indicated she was being bullied. The abuse
continued until the night of Celina's death, according to the parents'
statement."The night Celina died, we know students texted her
nasty messages, mocking her fondness for her favorite musician, her
weight, and calling her names like ugly, blacky and [expletive]."But
those who cared about Celina have reached out to her family, her
parents said."We do not believe she had any idea the impact her
death would have on so many, and she would never do anything to hurt
those who she loved the most," the Okwuones said. "Celina made friends
with the wrong people and had no idea how many other children here loved
and cared about her."Police and school officials could not be
reached for comment Thursday to respond to the parents' statement.

May 2010

What went wrong? "She came and laid on the chaise lounge next
to me and she was pretty down and I said what’s wrong?" said Dr.
Celestine Okwuone, Celina's father, during an interview with police.
Dr. Okwuone recalled to police the night she died. She complained her
teacher had singled her out in class for trouble while other kids were
acting up and didn’t get disciplined. She received nasty text messages from a boy she liked
”u r so ugly…” he writes. And she sent nasty words back…
"The main complaint she gives me is the teacher, and when you add it to the
fact that the kids manipulate her feelings, the fact of being her friend
one day and not being her friend the other day," Dr. Okwuone told police.
After bedtime, Dr. Okwuone remembers waking up to his
wife screaming after discovering their daughter hanging in the closet of her room.
Police spent a week interviewing Celina’s family,
teachers and classmates, concluding there was no crime committed, no
bullying, at least by the legal definition.
"What we found were kids being kids and we all know kids can be cruel,"
said Port St. Lucie Police Chief Donald Shinnamon.
The Okwuone issued a statement saying they believe their daughter was
bullied and that more should have been done by the school to stop it.
But in their words, and in their quiet lonely home, the family more than anything
is left with an overwhelming sense of sadness.
"She’s my angel now, watching over me…there’s no way I can bring her back," Dr. Okwuone told police.

A friend of the Okwuone family tells me they want something good to come
of their daughter’s death, specifically an enhancement of the bullying
law, defining what bullying is in this age of text messaging and
Facebook and adding penalties for those who do it.


Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/region_st_lucie_county/port_st_lucie/police-release-suicide-victim%27s-diary,-recordings#ixzz1X82ibS3d