Warning: This post deals with themes of suicide and may be triggering for some readers.
Chloe Fergusson just couldn’t handle it anymore.
Two months ago, after enduring almost eight years of relentless bullying, Chloe took her own life.
She was just 15-years-old.
Last night, the story of Chloe and her short and tragic life featured on an episode of 60 Minutes called Chloe’s Law. Throughout the episode, reporter Allison Langdon spoke to Chloe’s family and friends about what led their beloved Chloe to think she had no other other option than to opt out of life.
“I mean, I just wish that I could have said to her, just hold on, you know. Once you finish school, you know, it’s gonna be okay,” Chloe’s sister Cassie told Allison Langdon. “She felt she had no other escape. It breaks my heart that my kids are not gonna like, they’re – she’s not gonna see them grow up, ‘cause they just loved her so much,” Cassie said.
Chloe was the youngest of six children. She wanted to be psychologist and work with children when she grew up. And when she was just seven years old, her mun passed away from breast cancer. One of the most tragic parts of this story is that Chloe’s mother’s death was one of the reasons the kids bullied Chloe at school.
CASSIE: Ah, during primary school was when it started, but that was just usual kind of schoolyard bullying.
She was bullied because she didn’t have a mother which is just – awful thing to pick on someone about and then when she got to high school, you know, it gets – when it got worse with the physical and the cyber-bullying.
ALLISON LANGDON: So she was physically assaulted?
CASSIE: Yes, numerous times. Yes. She was thrown up against lockers at school and… I mean, it was just constant, just every day.
From the ages of seven to fifteen, Chloe was subjected to playground punch-ups. She was taunted in the school corridors. When she changed schools mid last year, Chloe’s family thought the bullying would stop. But instead the bullying just shifted online.
But it was an incident on the 10th of September that changed everything.
Chloe was attacked by a group of people at the local shopping centre. The group apparently knew that Chloe would be at the mall and were waiting for her. When Chloe arrived, they set on her, hitting her repeatedly on the head as she lay on the ground.
ALLISON LANGDON: But the physical attack was just the beginning of Chloe’s ordeal.
What followed was a social media frenzy with one girl bragging that she had a video of the bashing and threatening to post it online.
Police investigators are yet to confirm they have that video.
But what is now so tragically clear is that, for Chloe, the threat of it being made public on social media was as humiliating as the attack itself.
By 6:00 that night, less than three hours after the attack, Chloe’s Facebook feed was overflowing.
VOICEOVER: Bashed the fuck out of Chloe finally! Waited way too long for this. Oh my God, it’s about time. I saw her and I smacked her up. Who wants to see a video of Chloe Ferguson getting bashed ? Ha-ha-ha.
ALLISON LANGDON: That comment received 45 likes within two days.
CASSIE: Mm, it’s disgusting, huh. It’s not like she got bashed and three people saw it. Thousands and thousands of people could have seen that video. And she just would have been so humiliated.
On the 12th of September, Chloe ended her life because she just couldn’t handle it anymore.
Her sister Cassie still struggles to understand why anyone would want to hurt her sister.
Chloe and her best friend Lauren.
“We just couldn’t believe that the girl that we saw as happy and confident and so caring and compassionate and caring towards other people, could be seen as anything different,” Cassie told 60 Minutes.
The most tragic part of this story is that Chloe’s story is not isolated; Chloe is not the only teenager who’s been driven to take their own life because of bullying.
Similarly in August, 14-year-old UK student Hannah Smith committed suicide after sent a series of relentlessly abusive messages via the website Ask.fm. In April of last year, Olivia Penpraze lost her fight with the bullies when she also ended her life.
And the list goes on.
Chloe’s sister Cassie has now started a push for anti-bullying legislation in every state of Australia, so that no family ever has to endure the pain she’s experienced.
It’s Cassie’s belief that “Chloe’s Law” could be the ultimate answer to stopping bullying once and for all.
According to the Chloe’s Law Facebook page, which has amassed more than 181,000 likes, the aim of the group is to “create awareness and PREVENTION of Bullying from all walks of life..”
We strive to normalise societies attitude through social media, one face book page at a time.
CHLOE’S LAW are asking for community support to assist the change in Bullying Laws, for such to see the Australian State and Federal Government introduce stricter, more specific Laws to give the Police more specific laws for appropriate action in addition to the already stated stalking law, on all types of Bullying throughout each state of Australia and Tasmania.
Our goal is to see Strict more specific Laws fro action in relation to Bullying and be introduced as an addition into the Australian State and Federal stalking law to help protect those subjected to bullying along with those responsible for bullying another to be held accountable for their actions..
“If it can help save one other person who’s being bullied, then my sister’s death is not going to be in vain. She’s not just going to be another teen statistic,” Cassie said.
Top Comments
I really hope this law is passed. I was bullied badly at school and ten years later am still on anti depressants. It messed me up for life. And the bullies just think their top shit and it's funny and their right.
I am 13 years old and have started the following petition for Teen Life Coaching in schools
https://www.facebook.com/Th...