Content Warning: This article mentions suicide. Please proceed with caution.
To claim bullying damages lives and can even destroy them is not a matter of opinion. Anyone who has experienced being bullied, especially for long periods of time, can attest to its insidious effects. Bullying is not a new phenomenon but, with the advent of social media, it has changed its nature to become even more devastating.
In his book The Anxious Generation (2024), psychologist Jonathan Haidt, citing numerous studies, writes that, between 2011 and 2019, “approximately one in 10 high school boys and one in five high school girls experienced cyberbullying each year. In other words, the move online made bullying and harassment a larger part of daily life for girls.”
Thirteen-year-old Aubreigh Wyatt, her family, and loved ones have had to suffer the unspeakable consequences of this online and in-person harassment. It will be a year in September 2024 since Aubreigh took her own life, having just started eighth grade.
Her mother, Heather Wyatt, has been a courageous advocate of her daughter’s story. Despite attempts at being silenced, she has remained steadfast in her goal to do Aubreigh’s memory justice and speak out against bullying, while pointing the finger at the prevailing issue of teen suicide.
However, while Heather has been vocal online, there have been little to no recent online traces of the bullies.
Did the bullies face any consequences?
Heather Wyatt never mentioned the four bullies’ names in any of her videos. Even so, the four respective sets of parents filed a defamation and slander lawsuit against the grieving mother. It was an attempt to protect their daughters from the online outrage that was directed at them as a result of this story’s circulation.
According to Newsweek, part of the written complaint read:
“As a direct and proximate cause of the false, defamatory, and slanderous social media posts of the defendant, Heather Wyatt, the plaintiffs’ minor children have been receiving insulting and revolting messages from around the world attacking them, calling them vulgar names, sexualizing them. These young ladies WERE IN THE 8TH GRADE!!”
In addition, the parents were seeking financial compensation for emotional distress, attorneys’ fees as well as punitive damages.
Although Heather never named the bullies, their identities still leaked on social media. While the girls’ parents may have tried to protect their daughters from the backlash by filing the lawsuit, which led to Judge Mark Maples ordering Heather to shut down her social media accounts, their decision backfired spectacularly. In silencing Heather, word of the lawsuit further stoked the flames of netizens’ outrage, generating even more online chatter and drawing even more attention to the case.
Heather Wyatt created a GoFundMe page to help raise legal fees, which quickly met its original goal. She decided to increase the goal to 100 thousand which was also achieved. The fundraiser has, at the time of this writing, amassed nearly 125 thousand dollars.
The parents dropped the lawsuit on July 16 but it wasn’t until July 18 that Wyatt’s social media ban was lifted. The case was, according to People, “dismissed without prejudice.”
It appears that, although the bullies have not faced any formal consequences, they have certainly felt repercussions in the form of netizens’ voices resounding all across social media. Although some copycat accounts are out there, it seems the four girls don’t have TikTok accounts anymore, likely having taken a step back from the Internet to defend themselves from online attacks.
After the court order was dismissed, Heather Wyatt announced she had created Aubreigh’s Foundation in honor of her daughter’s legacy and in an effort to bring further awareness to the pervasive social problem of teen bullying and suicide.
If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling 988 for free, texting “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741, or going to the website 988lifeline.org. For those outside the US, please find the international suicide hotlines here.