Guadalupe Shaw, 14, was charged Monday with felony aggravated stalking against Rebecca Sedwick, who killed herself last month. A second girl, age 12, was also charged in the case. But Shaw’s parents say they checked on her account regularly and the girl's attorney claims she isn’t responsible for a callous post written after Sedwick died.
Comments (82)BY ERIK ORTIZ / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
PUBLISHED: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2013, 7:47 AM
UPDATED: WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2013, 9:24 AM
Rebecca Sedwick was found dead last month at an abandoned cement factory in the city of Lakeland, halfway between Tampa and Orlando in central Florida.
The parents of one of two girls accused of tormenting a Florida 12-year-old — driving her to suicide — claim their daughter didn’t post the callous Facebook message at the center of the case.
Instead, they say they're “sure” her account was hacked.
The post is what prompted Polk County authorities Monday to charge Guadalupe Shaw, 14, with felony aggravated stalking against Rebecca Sedwick.
The heartless comment posted Saturday allegedly said, “Yes ik [I KNOW]I bullied Rebecca nd she killed her self but IDGAF [I don’t give a (f--k)].”
POLK COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
Guadalupe Shaw, 14, was charged with a felony in the death of Rebecca Sedwick.
But Shaw's parents told ABC News Tuesday that they regularly look at their daughter's account — and would never allow her to write anything so vile.
"I would check her Facebook every time she would get on it," said Shaw's mom, who wasn't identified.
"If we saw something that was not right, we would've addressed it and it would've ended right then," her dad added.
Shaw’s attorney also said the girl denies stalking Sedwick, a former classmate at Crystal Lake Middle School in Lakeland, and isn’t responsible for the online message.
ERNST PETERS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Polk County Sheriff personnel investigate the death of 12-year-old girl Rebecca Sedwick at an old cement plant in Lakeland, Fla.
Andrea DeMichael told CNN that her client says “that this is not as clear cut as it seems.”
The charges against Shaw and a 12-year-old girl were announced Tuesday. The Sheriff’s Office released the name of the second suspect, but it is the Daily News’ policy not to identify minors.
If found guilty, the girls might not see any time in juvenile detention because they don’t have previous criminal histories, authorities said.
WTSP
Mourners attend the funeral for Rebecca Sedwick, who killed herself Sept. 9 after three years of relentless bullying at school and online, authorities say.
And whatever punishment they might receive “won’t be severe enough,” Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said at a news conference.
Investigators allege as many as 15 girls made Sedwick’s life a living hell over the past three years — ultimately leading her to hurl herself off of a silo at an abandoned concrete plant Sept. 9.
She endured cruel online taunts, and Shaw allegedly told her a year ago to “drink bleach and die.”
The sheriff said Shaw also convinced the younger suspect, who at one point was best friends with Sedwick, to turn on the girl.
The bullying of Rebecca Sedwick began over a ‘boyfriend issue.’
The bullying reportedly started over a boy whom Shaw and Sedwick had dated.
Judd said his office is still deciding whether the suspects’ parents should be additionally charged.
“I’m aggravated that the parents aren’t doing what parents should do,” he added. “Responsible parents take disciplinary action.”
A man who answered the phone at Shaw’s home said he was her father and told The Associated Press “none of it’s true.”
WTSP
Tricia Norman, the mother of Rebecca Sedwick, says she wonders how the tormenters were allowed to act out and why their parents weren’t watching them.
“My daughter’s a good girl, and I’m 100% sure that whatever they’re saying about my daughter is not true,” he said.
For Sedwick’s mom, Tricia Norman, the arrests are “bittersweet,” coming just before this weekend — which would have been her daughter’s 13th birthday.
“She should be here, be here to see justice getting served,” Norman told reporters in front of her home. “I wish they would have listened to her a long time ago when it was going on.”
POLK COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE
Rebecca Sedwick had changed an online profile to ‘That Dead Girl’ just before she killed herself Sept. 9.
She believes her daughter was victimized because the other girls were “jealous.”
Before her death, Sedwick changed one of her online screen names to “That Dead Girl” and she messaged a boy in North Carolina: “I’m jumping.”
Detectives found some of her diaries at her home, and she talked of how depressed she was about the situation.
She was hospitalized last December for three days after cutting her wrists because of what she said was bullying, according to the sheriff. Later, she complained that she had been pushed in the hallway at Crystal Lake Middle School and that another girl wanted to fight her, which is when Norman began home-schooling her.
This fall, Sedwick started at a new school, but the bullying continued online, authorities said.
Norman said she wonders where the other parents were and why their children were allowed to act out with such venom.
“They were kids when this started — babies. They were 11 and 13,” she said. “Where do they learn this? ... Who is teaching them this?”
With News Wire Services
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