WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — After 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick committed suicide last month, one of her tormenters continued to make comments about her online, even bragging about the bullying, a sheriff said Tuesday.
The especially callous remark hastened the arrest of a 14-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl who were primarily responsible for bullying Sedwick, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said. They were charged with stalking and released to their parents.
" 'Yes, I bullied Rebecca and she killed herself but I don't give a . . . ' and you can add the last word yourself,'' the sheriff said, quoting a Facebook post the older girl made Saturday.
Advertisement
Police in central Florida said Sedwick was tormented online and at school by as many as 15 girls before she climbed a tower and hurled herself to her death Sept. 9.
The sheriff said they were still investigating the girls, and trying to decide whether the parents should be charged.
About a year ago, the older girl threatened to fight Sedwick while they were sixth-graders at Crystal Lake Middle School and told her ''to drink bleach and die,'' the sheriff said. She also convinced the younger girl to bully Sedwick, even though they had been best friends.
The girls repeatedly intimidated Sedwick and called her names, the sheriff said.
The bullying began after the 14-year-old girl started dating a boy Sedwick had been seeing, the sheriff said.