Tovonna Holton, a 15 year old African-American girl, committed suicide after a a nude video of her was posted to the social media site SnapChat. SnapChat instant messages and photos are ony available for a short time before they are permanently deleted.
According to WFLA television news in Tampa,FL Holton used her mother’s handgun to take her own life last Sunday after she discovered that friends had allegedly filmed her taking a shower in a lockerroom and posted it to Snapchat without her permission.
Tovanna Holton was freshman attending Wiregrass Ranch High School in Wesley Chapel, FL. a Tampa suburb. Her mother, Levon Teamer-Holton, said that she had repeatedly visited the school to report the ongoing bullying of her daughter. Teamer-Holton said she “wasn’t always satisfied with the responses she got.” The mother was considering pulling her daughter out of the school before Sunday’s tragedy occurred. Pasco County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said the case is under investigation.
According to the Daily Beast Tovonna’s ex-boyfriend may have been getting even after the two broke up. According to one of Tovonna’s friends her ex-boyfriend obtained the nude recording and posted it on Twitter after they broke up. Apparently the two teens had been fighting the night before Tovonna died. According to Tovanna’s long time friend Christian Coyle-Watts and broke up Sunday morning.
Coyle-Watts said. “He did it just because he knew he could, and it would hurt her feelings.” Coyle-Watts said Tovonna’s Snapchat recording was meant to be a “body appreciation” post before the ex-boyfriend allegedly published it.
Stefonique Collier, Tovonna’s niece told the Daily Beast, “They say her friends recorded her in the tub while she was naked and then posted it on Snapchat.”
Collier said she saw Tovonna, who just turned 15, at the beach last week. After the video was posted on SnapChat people began taking screenshots and sharing them. Another friend, Zoe Vereen said. They were “calling her names.”
The ex-boyfriend mourned her death on Twitter, writing, “She was so beautiful” and “I wish I can go back in time and prevent all of this.”
The ex-boyfriend who was named only as Lumbano in the Daily Beast interview denies that he had posted the video and the idea that Tovanna was bullied.
“No one is at fault,” he continued in another tweet. “She had problems going on that no one knew about. Let my angel rest in peace.”
According Lumbano there were other issues at work in Holton’s life that may have contributed to her suicide. He called the bullying allegations false saying Tovonna had other problems, including disagreements with her parents. He revealed her final text message that indicates that Holton was being punished.
Tovanna’s final text read, “My mom hates me. I literally fuck up everything. I’m such a fuck up and I can’t do anything anymore,” she wrote. “I’m truly sorry and I’ll always love you.”
Attorney Jeffrey Brown who is representing another un-named party involved in the case sent an email to a local television WFLA news station that also questioned the bullying claims. “This narrative is untrue and not based on credible facts and is their opinion only. The cyber bullying angle to this story is not based on facts.”
Breaking It Down
Whether this was bullying or not is a question for investigators. There is no doubt that the video was loaded up on SnapChat by someone. We’ may never know who. But there is a bigger problem here we must deal with. And that is the power of social media in the wrong hands. We need to make sure our children understand the how incredibly dangerous social media and the Internet is. It is no trivial matter when our children begin killing themselves when they learn how exposed they have become using the Internet. It is no trivial matter when social media persuades people to commit crimes and even murder. We must teach our children the power of this new media. Nothing is ever deleted from the Internet. And we must heed the old cliche; “Whats done in the dark will come to light.” Young people are discovering that their Facebook pages and Twitter feed are having an impact on their life far in the future. In Tovanna’s case she learned horribly fast that social media can tear a life apart. Sadly this not an isolated incident. People do this sort thing everyday because they simply lack the understanding of what the Internet and sites like SnapChat can do to them. We cannot continue to just hand our children computers, tablets and smartphones and ignore the continued responsibility that go along with it. This is an educational issue that is beginning to look like a public health issue. You would not hand a child a gun to play with would you? So why would anyone hand a child a device that connects to the Internet when we know that there are extreme dangers waiting for them online. Right now there are pedophiles, scam artists, and even killers surfing the Internet looking for their next victim. Parents need to be as cautious when handing a child a computer as they would handing them the keys to the car.
