Ashwanty's Fight

Wednesday was a hard day.

A young black child was taken off life support but not due to disease or some accident.

It started with a fist fight she was involved with in school, which was videotaped and shared on social media. This ten year old was bullied over it and it just got worse.

So she went home after school, went to her closet, and hung herself.  She spent two weeks on life support before she died on Wednesday.

She was ten years old.

herself 

Ashawnty Davis
Never forget her name!

Black people have lulled themselves into a false sense of security. Because if you're not a white male in your 40s, then you're not in danger of killing yourself. This is a fantasy. Bullying is an issue no matter what community that you're in. However, suicide is an epidemic around the world. It can touch every family regardless of your ethnicity, sex, or race.

We need to remember this. Suicide is not a "White thing". It's a human thing. If your child is going through a depression or a serious issue at school or a social problem, you have to think about suicide. You have to talk about it. You have to bring it up with your children. 

I remember writing a piece about a teacher showing a documentary about children that committed suicide and the parents were so upset that their children were watching it. They believed that they were too young for the subject matter in the 4th grade. That was the PERFECT age to talk to children about suicide. In this day and age, they are exposed to so much on social media, so parents don't have the luxury of waiting for an age appropriate time for subjects. You have to base it on your child and their experience. 

Had a relative that killed themselves? Talk to your child in terms that are real. Don't talk around the subject. Be direct. Children saw porn on television by mistake? Time to talk about sex and what they saw. Don't ignore it. EVER. 

There is no such thing really when it comes to age appropriate when you're talking to your children, with a few exceptions. There is "experience appropriate" and if your child is experiencing something then that's when you talk to your child about it. 

I don't know if Ashawnty's parents saw the signs. I don't know if they had the time to. This is tragic all around. We want to lash out at the children that did it. We want to lash out at the parents for not seeing it. But what makes incidents tragic is all the missed opportunities there were to put this incident to rest. 

If you're reading this, and you have children, then talk to them. It's your parents only weapon against this horrible thing. This thing called suicide. Not one more life lost to suicide. 

Not one.

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