Unimaginable heartache

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From unimaginable pain and tragedy, Lori Kascak hopes some good will come.

It was in April that her 13-year-old daughter took her own life.

Kascak admits her daughter had many stressors in her life, including challenges at home, but she believes the bullying her daughter endured while attending school in Summerland played a significant factor in her daughter's decision to take her own life.

“There is a multitude of reasons and factors that contributed to that tragedy, but part of it was bullying. She and I spoke about it a lot,” she said.

Kascak talked to school officials and the RCMP, but received a lot of “kids will be kids” attitude from officials.

“I don't understand why there is no accountability. The day before she took her life, a girl from school told her she belonged in a straight jacket. I have images from my daughter's Instagram account telling her she should go kill herself,” said Kascak, her voice cracking as she fought back tears.

Kascak can't comprehend how the policing system can basically ignore the statements and leave it up to the school system to deal with.

She wants more accountability and repercussions for people who taunt others by encouraging self harm.

She noted Michelle Carter was recently convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the U.S. after sending numerous messages to her ex-boyfriend urging him to take his own life, which eventually he did.

Kascak wrote a letter about her journey, which reads in part: I grew up in a time where schools preached it was always ‘hands off’ as it was not acceptable to physically hurt another. Today, we have anti-bullying campaigns, but let’s just call them what they are, anti-abusing campaigns. Why are we afraid to use that label? I offer a simple answer: It would be because we would have to accept that as parents, we are responsible for teaching our children to abuse.

“The abusers today, are living in a time where they can get to their victims by means of telephone, text, and social media. Abuse typically happens behind closed doors, and this is nothing new. The abusers of this world now have the ability to hide behind their screens, hack into private computers and hide behind fake profiles thus creating a world for their victims, where they literally have nowhere to hide unless they choose to disconnect completely and be in isolation to avoid all communications.”

Her advice to any parent of a bullied child is to stand up and don't quit until the matter is resolved.

“Don't take no for an answer and don't accept that nothing can be done. We have to unite and we have to make changes,” she said, adding parents should document everything.

By advocating for victims, Kascak hopes some good will come out of the tragedy that has changed her life.