Cyberbullying: Tiffani Maxwell's Story

Tiffani Maxwell was 16-years-old when she became a victim of bullycide in January of 2011. Tiffani shot herself due to being a victim of bullying at school and rumors created about her. It combines cyberbullying and face-to-face bullying at her school. She lived in Portersville, PA with her family.

Sandy, her mother, stated that the bullying was focused on aspects such as being accused of being someone who was using drugs. The rumor was actually used to falsly accuse and report her for illegal drug use that resulted in the school expelling Tiffani. After the expulsion, Tiffani started recieving text messages that said, "You are in rehab" and "You're on drugs".

Text messaging used to harass another person is another form of cyberbullying. Any use to threaten, harass, and negatively impact another individual through technology (texts, facebook, twitter, other social networking sites, and instant messaging) are all a form of "new" bullying with the advances in such tenchonology.

Tiffani was a Junior at Slippery Rock High School when she took her own life. She had attended the Presbyterian church of Prospect.

Tiffani loved horses, especially her own horse she had named 'Sunshine'. Her other interests included, but not limited to, barral racing, cooking, baking, and spending a lot of time sharing these enjoyments with her family. She was into the outdoors, loved to ride quads, and her favorite sports team was the Boston Celtics.

Since Tiffani's death her parents have been proactive in addressing and tackling the issue of bullying in today's society. It addresses the consequences of the bullying that children and teenager's are victim too every year. The CAUSE is Peer Pressure Against Bullying and you can go to the link provided and join over ten thousand others in taking a stand against bullying.

I am proud to have joined this caused and shared it on my facebook as well as the facebook pages of those that I have supported or "liked" in support of others that have been victimized, including the most recent suicide of Amanda Todd. I hope that you do too and spread the world to everyone you know as word of mouth and loud voices are all you need to make a change in the world.

The purpose of this cause is to stop the bullying epidemic. This being made possible by raising awareness among our society. It promotes kindness to others and not bullying behaviors.

NATIONAL SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE: 1-800-273-TALK