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Leeds teenager bullied for shunning drinking, smoking and swearing
Leeds Coroner David Hinchliff urged bullied children to speak out after he heard the tragic tale of a 14-year-old girl.
Stephanie Burlingham - a pupil of Woodkirk High in Wakefield - was found hanging from the loft ladder at her Beeston home by her father and brother on February 2 last year.
Mr Hinchliff heard that the girl, called a "boff" (brainy student) by classmates, was spat at, called a bitch and ridiculed when thugs at school learned she was in counselling. And she was bullied by text messages.
The coroner recorded a verdict of Accidental death on Stephanie because she did not leave a suicide note.
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"It would not be proper for me to record that she had taken her own life," he said. "I think it is more likely that when she died was not one of Stephanie's better days.
"She might have wished to draw attention to herself in the hope she would be taken more seriously. I believe she did that but then became overwhelmed by the processes of asphyxiation."
Mr Hinchliff urged bullied children to have the guts to come forward. "The only way to deal with it is to speak out and stand up and make it known about," he said. "Not staying silent could make all the difference."
He heard that Stephanie, who had started dressing like a Goth and listening to Goth music, had been bullied by text and on the MSN Messenger service on her home computer.
Her mother Jean, 47, a civil servant, said she and her husband Michael, 48, a management accountant, were horrified to discover she had looked at sick suicide websites on the internet.
"It really distressed us. We spoke to her and she told us she had been cutting herself," she said. "She said it was because of the bullying going on at school. She said she didn't feel she could go to anyone about it.
"They used to call her a 'boff' and she hated that. I saw some of the texts that girls at her school had been sending to her and they spread rumours about her on MSN.
"Once she rang me at home because she had just been spat at on the school bus. She told me they pushed her around. There were two girls in particular."
Mrs Burlingham said her daughter was counselled by the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service at St George's, Middleton, south Leeds, where she was told to listen to "whale music" to deal with her problems.
"Going to seek help from these people was a complete waste of time," she said.
Counsellor Jean Perry denied she had given such advice. "I can say hand on heart I did not tell Stephanie to listen to whale music," she said.
PE teacher Paul Cooper said he had spoken to Stephanie several times and had disciplined one of the bullies.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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