A bespectacled young girl, age fifteen, whose interests include learning about dinosaurs and the mysteries of the ocean’s depth. She has a soft spot for animals, in particular dogs, who provide her with a sense of calm and safety. She sometimes feels like an outsider and yearns for a sense of belonging amongst her peer group. At times she is naive to the true nature and intent of others.
These words could have been written about me at fifteen. I was a shy kid who used to skip classes to go to the library and read about subjects I was actually interested in, like palaeontology. Rebellious, I know. I wasn’t popular and never really felt like I belonged although I did have a small band of similar misfits that formed my social circle. I was happy to finally graduate high school and become an adult with a life free of whatever bias and conformity I felt in my high school’s hallways. I will be forever thankful that I went through my teenage years in the decade before social media became a poison in our lives.
But the bespectacled young girl I opened with did not.
There was a time in the early 2010s when a number of Canadian news stories involved young girls taking their lives after being sexually coerced, assaulted, blackmailed and cyberbullied. Amanda Todd is one. She was just fifteen when she committed suicide. And Rehtaeh Parsons, aged fifteen when she was gangraped by a group of boys then bullied by her community–peers and adults alike–after photos of the assault were widely shared on social media. She committed suicide at sixteen after the taunts and abuse followed her wherever she moved to escape.
I recently finished reading My daughter, Rehtaeh Parsons written by her father. Each page made me feel a little bit sadder than the last because this young girl reminded me a lot of myself at that age. She had a curiosity about the world that was endearing and hinted a bright future. She had a heart that showed empathy and care towards all living things. All of this so needlessly cut short by individuals without remorse. At times, Rehtaeh’s story reminded me of the Salem witch trials and the absolute ugliness under the surface of a society hellbent on hating and punishing women.
Insight into the multiple ways she was failed by the education system, the healthcare system, and the police force just left me angry and it is with much respect I extend to Glen Canning for calling it out and attempting to get justice for his daughter. These girls should still be with us, blossoming into the women they were meant to be.