Cassidy Trevan was raped when she was 13. Two years after the incident, the 15-year-old committed suicide. She was a victim of both rape and bullying.
Cassidy was allegedly raped by two teenage boys from her school in Melbourne, Australia and had to battle severe bullying and slut-shaming by her peers and strangers alike, ever since.
Cassidy and her mother Linda Trevan had visited the police station over 20 times over a span of two years but couldn’t build a strong case to support her claims due to a lack of evidence.
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‘My Name is Cassidy Traven and I Was Raped’
Before Cassidy ended her life, however, she had penned down an unfinished but powerful letter to warn others from meeting the same end as she did.
I’m not doing this for revenge to those students that raped me, set up the rape, bullied me about the rape, teased me about the rape or anything like that. I’m also not doing this for attention-seeking like I mentioned earlier, I want to make that clear.Cassidy Trevan
Bullying Killed My Child: Cassidy’s Mother is Fighting
Linda found Cassidy’s half-finished suicide note on her computer and posted it on Facebook. The post went viral. According to it, Cassidy suffered “flashbacks of the crime, nightmares, insomnia, separation anxiety, panic attacks, PTSD and subsequent worsening mental illness.”
I had to watch my baby suffer for the next 22 months from these demons... she worried you would find her and get her again, she went through continued bullying from some of you who managed to get to her by phone or social media, via others, even after what you’d done to her.Linda Traven’s Facebook post.
“I hope the knowledge of what you did haunts you for the rest of your lives, and one day, if you are lucky enough to have children of your own... remember what you did to my precious only baby, and imagine how you'd feel if someone did that to your baby,” wrote the grieving mother.
She also started a Facebook page dedicated to fighting for her daughter and others who go through similar situations, called ‘Bullying killed my child’.
Strong, honest, and with a hint of regret, Cassidy’s letter urges rape survivors to not give up their fight. And now her mother is fulfilling Cassidy’s request.
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