Raising Awareness About Cyberbullying

Safe Neighborhoods | Youth Development

People Acting in Community Together (PACT San Jose), December 12, 2009, KCBS

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KCBS)  -- Hundreds turned out for a rally in San Jose Friday in an attempt to bring attention to the problem of cyberbullying.

This comes one year after a Del Mar High School girl tried to take her own life.

17-year-old Amanda Brownell survived, but now suffers from severe brain damage.

KCBS' Betsy Gebhart Reports

Her mother, Ann said a month before the tragedy, two of Amanda's classmates were texting thousands of messages to her.

"She said these two girls were bullying her and making up stuff, getting her upset," Brownell said. "But, she said she wasn't paying attention to it and that she was just deleting what they wrote."

Ann Brownell said she found out too late about the text messages to help her daughter. But her group, PACT, People Acting in Community Together has now formed "the Amanda Network" to raise awareness about bullying.

"For every negative comment you make to somebody, it takes a thousand good comments to undo that one negative comment," said Brownell.

Just a few months ago, President Obama signed the Matthew Shepard Act, which includes cyberbullying as a hate crime.