Mother is demanding her daughter’s suicide video be played to students

Vanessa Love said she feels rage every time she sees another headline about another child dying - she’s got one pledge.

A Queensland mother is demanding her daughter’s suicide video be played to students at every school in Australia, furious nothing has stopped the wave of deaths since her daughter died 12 years ago.

Vanessa Love said she feels rage every time she sees another headline about another child dying.

She is speaking out after hearing about the death of Sydney schoolboy 13-year-old Atreyu McCann earlier this month and now, the death of Hamish Carter who was just 12 when he took his life just 50 metres from his southern Sydney home.

Ms Love’s daughter Courtney shared a harrowing farewell video with friends on social media before suiciding in Kiama.

Ms Love allowed the vision to be part of The Sunday Telegraph’s Charlotte’s Wish documentary, which called for change after the death of 12-year-old Santa Sabina student Charlotte O’Brien last year.

Vanessa Love lost her 15-year-old daughter Courtney to suicide. She is filled with fury every time she hears that another child is beaten down by bullying and says more needs to be done to stop the scourge. Picture: Supplied.

Courtney Love left a video message before she died. She was just 15 years old. Picture: Supplied by her devastated mum.

“What is it going to take? This is just insanity, that children keep on dying and bullies keep on being bullies,” Ms Love told news.com.au this week.

“I want every single school in this country to show Courtney’s video, to show the sadness in her eyes, to show her giving up to the people who told her to cut deeper and deeper.

“If schools won’t play it then I want to know why. I would love to hear them justify it. Is it too distressing? Too real? Well I’ll tell you something, this is my reality and it’s reality for all these other mums.”

Ms Love said she was gutted for Charlotte’s mum Kelly and Hamish’s mum Jodie and wants to team up to make a real difference. All three mums have flagged talking at schools to get through to children and all three support the Federal Government’s pledge to create a national bullying policy.

Newscorp’s Growth Intelligence Centre (GIC) recently completed a study focusing on the Australian primary and secondary education sector that found bullying and school safety was the number one issue for parents.

They want immediate and sustained focus on making schools safer and strengthening anti-bullying policies.

Jodie Carter lost her son Hamish to suicide. He was bullied at school from year 1. Picture: Supplied

Sydney mum Jodie Carter writes to her son Hamish every night to feel close to her lost little boy who died by suicide in 2022.Picture: Matrix Pictures/news.com.au

The study found three in five Australian school children have experienced bullying at school and one in three parents say their child’s school doesn’t take bullying seriously.

Ms Carter, who lost Hamish in 2022, said there is no time to waste.

“This is so f**king serious. We are losing these gorgeous children far too often. The time is now to stop it,” Ms Carter said.

“The world has lost too many of these special souls, and we can no longer stay silent about this.

“It is time to scream and shout as loud as we can and change the rules, change people’s lives, train teachers and authorities to pass laws against this.”

All three women have made submissions to the Anti-Bullying Rapid Review, being led by Dr Charlotte Keating and Dr Jo Robinson AM, examining current school procedures and best practice methods to address bullying behaviours.

It’s been nine months since Kelly O’Brien got to hug her little girl and best friend Charlotte. She says the days don’t get any easier. Picture: Supplied.

Charlotte O’Brien left a note for her mum and dad, asking them to raise awareness about the bullying she had suffered at school. Picture: Supplied

The experts have been working with key stakeholders across metropolitan and regional Australia, including parents, teachers, students, parent groups, state education departments and the non-government sector.

Charlotte’s parents have met face to face with the two experts - and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese - and are optimistic change will come.

“The government’s rapid review task force has a real chance to save lives and can I just say thank you to the government for taking the initiative to face this pandemic head on and not continue to put the issue of bullying in the too hard basket,” said Charlotte’s still-devastated mum Kelly O’Brien.

“We educate our children about kindness, we educate our children about bullying and anti- bullying behaviours, but when they are brave enough to come forward and speak out we label them the problem,” she said.

Australian actress Clare McCann says her 13-year-old son Atreyu suicided after being bullied at high school. Picture: Supplied

Clare McCann said she regrets not taking her Atreyu out of school.

“Let’s educate children when they come forward so they know they are safe, they are believed and their problems will be solved. We don’t all need to like each other but we all need to respect and be kind to each other.”

Mrs O’Brien said teachers, parents and students all need help.

“We need to tackle the issue of bullying as a community. No child should ever feel so beaten down, so disbelieved and rejected when they come forward.

“There needs to be a zero policy to bullying. One-off incidents are still bullying. It doesn’t need to be repeated to be classed as bullying.

“Why do we let it get to the level of repeated behaviour.

“My baby is gone. So many babies are gone. The ripple affect of every death is catastrophic to victims and their bullies alike.”

Originally published as Mother is demanding her daughter’s suicide video be played to students