On Sept. 7, 15-year-old Amanda Todd posted a video on YouTube titled My story: Struggling, bullying, suicide, self harm.

One month later, the Maple Ridge teen killed herself.

The video is of a young thin girl with long wavy dark hair showing a written out life story using flash cards. In her life story she told of bullying she received from girls and boys alike, and moving from one school to the next.

Her YouTube user name was TheSomebodytoknow and in the video description she wrote the following: “I’m struggling to stay in this world, because everything just touches me so deeply. I’m not doing this for attention. I’m doing this to be an inspiration and to show that I can be strong... Haters are haters but please don’t hate... I hope I can show you guys that everyone has a story, and everyone’s future will be bright one day, you just gotta pull through. I’m still here aren’t I?

But on Wednesday night the young girl ended her life just a few weeks shy of her 16th birthday.

Irene Pochop, spokesperson for the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows school district (SD42) said that people don’t realize how much their words can hurt.

“We take these things very seriously,” she said.

“Our focus today is to be able to support the students who have been affected by Amanda’s death,” Pochop explained.

Recently, SD42 introduced a provincial program called ERASE Bullying.

It is a 10-point anti-bullying strategy that will help ensure every child feels safe, accepted and respected, regardless of their gender, race, culture, religion, or sexual orientation.

The strategy is aimed to help prevent, identify, and stop harmful behaviours by children and adults – whether online, at school, or in the community.

ERASE (Expect Respect And a Safe Education) includes:

A five-year, multi-level training program for educators and community partners to help them proactively identify and address threats.

New online tools, including a Smartphone app, for kids to report bullying anonymously.

Dedicated safe school co-ordinators in every school district.

Stronger codes of conduct for schools.

Provincial guidelines for threat assessments.

New online resources for parents.

Formal protocols to guide and co-ordinate the work of school and community partners.

A provincial advisory committee with representatives from police, school and social agency partners.

Focusing one of the existing six provincial teacher professional development days on anti-bullying.

Anti-bullying and threat assessment training for pre-service teachers.

A five-year, multi-level training program for educators and community partners to help them proactively identify and address threats.

New online tools, including a Smartphone app, for kids to report bullying anonymously.

Dedicated safe school co-ordinators in every school district.

Stronger codes of conduct for schools.

Provincial guidelines for threat assessments.

New online resources for parents.

Formal protocols to guide and co-ordinate the work of school and community partners.

A provincial advisory committee with representatives from police, school and social agency partners.

Focusing one of the existing six provincial teacher professional development days on anti-bullying.

Anti-bullying and threat assessment training for pre-service teachers.

-Stay tuned for more about this in upcoming editions of print and online versions of The TIMES.