Two Florida girls, one aged 14 and the other 12, were arrested in central Florida after the older girl admitted online over the weekend that she had harassed 12-year-old Rebecca Sedwick, who killed herself last month.
Rebecca Sedwick, the “terrorized” girl, was from Lakeland, Florida, she jumped to her death from an abandoned cement tower after texting a North Carolina boy that she had met online and telling him that she was going to jump and she couldn’t take it anymore. The young girl’s body was discovered by a sheriff’s deputy at 2 AM on September 10.
Florida authorities arrested the two young girls and charged them as juveniles on felony aggravated stalking charges on Monday night. The sheriff of Pope County, Grady Judd, stated that they had made the arrests because of worries that the two young girls would continue cyber bullying other victims. “We decided, look, we can’t leave her out there,” Judd said. “Who else is she going to torment? Who else is she going to harass? Who is the next person she verbally and mentally abuses and attacks?”
According to authorities the 14-year-old girl posted “Yes ik(I know) I bullied REBECCA nd she killed herself but IDGAF(I don’t give a f***)” But, according to news sources, the young girl denied to police that she posted that message, saying her Facebook account was hacked.
Sheriff Judd said the 14-year-old girl, who was cold and emotionless at the time of her arrest, had begun bullying Sedwick after she began dating a boy that Rebecca had been seeing, and turned all of Rebecca’s friends at school against her, including the 12-year-old that was also arrested who was described as once being Rebecca’s best friend. There may have been as many as 15 other girls who had cyber bullied Rebecca through online texts and message boards. Many of those young girls ceased being friends with Rebecca over fears that they too would be bullied, according to Sheriff Judd. The 12-year-old admitted to authorities that she had cyber-bullied Rebecca but was sorry for doing so, the Sheriff’s department added.
The Polk County Sheriff’s office said that the parents of the two girls were uncooperative, and refused to bring them into the station and so deputies went to their homes and arrested them on Monday night.