Ciaras dad warns against further cyber-bully deaths
Ciaras dad warns against further cyber-bully deaths
By Noel Baker
Thursday, November 15, 2012
The father of Ciara Pugsley, a schoolgirl who died by suicide after a campaign of online bullying, has warned lives will continue to be lost unless steps are taken to tackle the problem.
Speaking after a meeting with TDs and senators at Leinster House, Jonathan Pugsley said that he felt some sympathy for the alleged bullies in the recent case of Erin Gallagher, as well as her family, after she too took her life following online abuse.
Mr Pugsley was part of a delegation led by the president of the National Anti-Bullying Coalition, Monica Monahan, which met members of the Oireachtas yesterday.
Ms Monahan said the NABC was aware of six cases of suicide following cyber-bullying over the past 18 months, and said a nationwide campaign of education similar in prevalence to the Saorview switchover campaign and new laws for alleged abusers were needed.
Ciara, a 15-year-old living in Dromahair, Co Leitrim, took her own life in September. Both she and Erin Gallagher had been subjected to taunts on the Ask.fm website.
Mr Pugsley said communities and authorities around the country needed to co-ordinate a national response and move past the "denial stage".
In light of Erin Gallaghers death he said his phone had been "absolutely hopping".
"Unfortunately, it brings you back to what your own circumstances were, and my heart goes out to the Gallagher family its such an awful, awful thing to happen to anybody, and just so suddenly after Ciara.
"I would like! to think it wont happen again but I am not that naive. We have got nothing in place at the moment to educate people to look for the signs, to get people talking. These things arent in place at the moment so Im sure its going to happen again.
"Unfortunately, someone is going to be there left with what we are left with now, photographs and memories, which is a very sad thing. So we have to start walking the walk now, rather than talking.
"It has to be a community thing," he said, adding that such a holistic approach had been proven to work.
As for alleged recriminations in Donegal after Erins death he said the alleged bullies "had not been taught anything different" and that "we should have been more proactive". "Im sure they feel sorry for what they have done," he said.
"We are not equipped as people, we are not equipped in communities, we are not equipped as schools, in how to rectify these things and its important that we come out of the denial stage and actually take things forward and start to educate ourselves."
Ms Monahan welcomed the chance to speak with members of the Oireachtas but stressed that the pace of action needed to speed up.
"We would like things to take a faster track now as, since we started our work, we can calculate up to six more suicides in terms with connections with bullying," she said, adding that litigation was also a part of the solution. However, she said a national strategy in terms of public health and a nationwide education campaign were also key.
Labour TD Gerald Nash said he was optimistic the Government would bring forward reforms.
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Thursday, November 15, 2012