Three years ago, a 16-year-old girl received more than 3,500 harassing text messages. She walked into a bathroom stall and attempted to take her life.
Amanda Brownell survived that day. She suffered brain damage and now lives in a 24-hour care facility nearby to the home she grew up in.
Her teacher goes over lessons, exercises with her every week. Her reward when she has a good day is a personal mani-pedi. Her mother, Ann Brownell says that she's like any other 19-year-old and that one day, she will be able to tell her mother just that.
Brownell took that tragic event three years ago and has shared it with countless students and parents alike, hoping that if enough people out there hear of what her family has gone through they may change the way they talk and interact with one another. She created the Amanda Network Anti-Bullying Campaign.
And on the anniversary of Amanda's attempted suicide, she holds a candle light vigil to remember that day and to remind the community that bullying has not gone away.
According to the Center for Disease Controll, suicide is the third leading cause of death among children ages 10 to 14 and 15 to 24.
