Suicide Pact: Minnesota Teens Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz Commit Suicide at Slumber Party

[Paul Murphy]

Suicide Pact: Minnesota Teens Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz Commit Suicide at Slumber Party

 

Teen Kills Himself After Being Bullied

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By JESSICA HOPPER

April 20, 2011

A slumber party in Minnesota ended in tragedy when two eighth grade girls fulfilled a suicide pact, killing themselves and leaving behind suicide notes telling their families that they loved them.

The bodies of best friends Haylee Fentress and Paige Moravetz, both 14, were discovered Saturday by Fentress' mother, Tracy Morrison.

Haylee's aunt, Robin Settle, said the girl had recently moved to the rural town of Lynd, Minn., and had complained to her family that she felt ostracized and bullied. Settle also said there are indications that the girls had planned their deaths for a long time, even including funeral details in a good-bye note.

"I'm shocked and I'm mad and I'm sad...I don't understand the mentality of kids torturing other kids, kids having to go through this. They don't think they have anywhere to go to," Settle told ABC News.com.

Settle said that her niece, Haylee, had been the victim of bullying after moving to Minnesota from Indiana with her mother and 8-year-old brother.

"She was made fun of for being overweight, her red hair," Settle said. "She posted on my [Facebook] wall that she really wanted to come back...that the people were mean and cruel and she didn't fit in."

Even though Haylee wasn't severely overweight, she was so uncomfortable about her size that she rarely ate in public at school, Settle said.

  

Paige was Haylee's closest friend.

"They were best friends. Haylee started school here about a year ago and over the course of the year, they'd become best friends," said Brett Behnke, Paige's uncle.

Paige played hockey and was teaching Haylee to skate, Behnke said.

"She had a big, round face and a smile that's intoxicating, just a charmer," Behnke said of his niece.

The two girls were so close, Haylee had hyphenated her last name on Facebook to include Paige's last name.

Haylee was recently expelled from school for defending Paige during a fight in school, Settle said.

Calls and emails to the Marshall School District to confirm this were not returned.

"That was really weighing on her, missing her friends and being excluded from school. She felt like she was defending herself and her friend," Settle said.

 

Minnesota Teens Leave Behind Suicide Notes

The girls died three days after Paige's mother and stepdad left for a 10-day vacation to Hawaii. Paige spent the night at Haylee's home.

"Her and Paige got really close. I think they've had this plan for some time," Settle said.

Sometime after 1 a.m. on Saturday, Haylee left a Facebook post for her cousin, Jessica, wishing her a happy birthday. After leaving a post on her cousin's wall, Haylee called her closest friend in Indiana, Settle said. Around 6 a.m., Haylee's mother found the girls.

"They did hang themselves. My sister found them. She's a medical assistant. She attempted to resuscitate them," Settle said.

Those efforts to resuscitate the girls failed.

The girls also left behind letters.

"She just didn't want anybody to be sad for her. She wanted everybody to pray for her and that's the gist of it," Behnke said of Paige's note.

Haylee's letter was to her mother and detailed plans for her funeral, Settle said.

"She requested everything pink and princess and butterflies," Settle said.

A funeral will be held Thursday for Haylee and a second one will be held for Haylee on Saturday in Indiana. Paige's funeral is scheduled for today.

"She was actually one of the most giving loving girls you would ever meet... She just loved everyone unconditionally...She couldn't stand people to be made fun of, tortured, teased. She stood up for the underdogs and she was one herself," Settle said.

 

Please see.

 

 

[Paul Murphy]

"Thank you for giving me an amazing life and I'm sorry for doing this to you and I love you," 14-year-old Hayley Fentress wrote in a suicide note to her mom.

And, with no further explanation, the teen's tragic act has left her family scrambling for answers.

On April 16, eighth grade students Haylee Fentress and Paige Behnke, who attended a school in rural Minnesota, hanged themselves in an apparent suicide pact, "Today" reports.

The best friends both showed signs of depression and "... both had confided to family members that they had been teased and ridiculed, not so much in the middle school where they had become fast friends, but on Facebook," according to "Today."

Recently, Fentress was expelled for getting in a fight while trying to defend Behnke.

However, the girls' mothers say they never expected them to take such drastic measures, telling the news show they did not see warning signs.

"I played it over probably a million times," Paige's mother tells "Today." "And there's nothing. Nothing that she might have did different that I wouldn't have caught. There was nothing."

[Paul Murphy]

     {  LaNiyah Bailey is  6 years old, and I tend to believe she  is changing the  landscape  of the obesity crisis. Will the food industry take her on? Will the media report on her ground breaking work? Will you, the reader give her story a tiny press of a  key, and send her work viral? She is a warrior, and she is standing up against the bully. She can do this all alone in isolation , or we can lend a hand.The choice is your's to make . Here is your chance to stand up along side a warrior, who has been bullied due to obesity.www.obesitythunderbay.ca # www.obesitythunderbay.ning.com #www.notfatcauseIwannabe.com#.  She will not go quietly into the night and her Parents deserve our respect and appreciation. Personally, I want to thank her Parents  for joining this site .They and I do not ask for money to carry the message of hope and dignity for all.

 Just watch  her stand up for a generation of children.

 What can you do ?}

6-year-old's book aims to teach other kids on obesity, bullying

By Dawn Turner Trice - Chicago Tribune

 
CHICAGO — Children began teasing LaNiyah Bailey about her weight two years ago when she was in pre-kindergarten. She told me they called her "fatty-pants" and "big, fat elephant girl." Some kids said LaNiyah's distended abdomen looked like she was carrying a baby. One adult, a former day care provider, even called her "fatso."

LaNiyah's mother, LaToya White, said that although most adults don't say anything, many do stare when she and her daughter are in the grocery store.

LaNiyah is now 6 and weighs 115 pounds, about 70 pounds more than the average child her age. "People look at me like, 'What are you feeding her?' " said White, 34, who works for a property management company. "When we're in the store, they look in my shopping cart expecting to find a bunch of junk food. But she's always eaten healthy."
LIFE CMP-SELF-BULLIED TB
MCT - 6-year-old author LaNiyah Bailey plays the board game CandyLand with her mother Latoya White and father Songo Bailey in Bellwood, Illinois on Thursday, March 31, 2011. (Scott Strazzante/ Chicago Tribune/MCT)

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So, as this west suburban Berkeley, Ill., child finds herself at the intersection of a couple of hot issues — the country's epidemic of childhood obesity and the destructive effects of bullying — her parents are determined to make sure neither erodes her self-esteem.

White said that she and LaNiyah's father, Songo Bailey, first noticed their daughter was gaining an abnormal amount of weight when she was 3 years old. The family met with a nutritionist, who put LaNiyah on a strict 1,800-calorie-per-day diet. They also hired a personal trainer, but LaNiyah's weight continued to increase. She gained 30 pounds during 2009.

"The personal trainer said, 'Something is wrong,' " White said. "Outside of the training, she's a very active girl. She's taken dance classes, and she has a treadmill at home. And she runs around the house with our puppy."

White and Bailey took their daughter to doctor after doctor, and they blamed LaNiyah's weight on bad dietary habits.

"One doctor told me, right in front of LaNiyah's face, 'She's just fat because you're feeding her the wrong things,' " White said.

"She became so self-conscious that she doesn't wear jeans at all. She wears sweat pants, and I buy her cute tops. Or she'll wear dresses because she's a girlie-girl."

Medical problems found

Outraged and frustrated, LaNiyah's parents continued taking her to doctors until one ordered an X-ray, which showed LaNiyah had a swollen colon. Other tests have shown evidence that she may have a hormonal abnormality.

She now is being treated by an endocrinologist and a gastroenterologist.

"We want people to know that childhood obesity isn't always food-induced," said Bailey, 33, a firefighter.

Dr. Rebecca Unger, a pediatrician at Children's Memorial Hospital and a member of the Consortium to Lower Obesity in Chicago Children, said it's unusual for children to be obese because of issues not directly related to overeating. But it does happen.

"By far, the most common cause of childhood obesity is the imbalance between calories in and the amount of energy expended," said Unger, who is not LaNiyah's pediatrician. "But even when a child's weight gain is because of medical reasons, the goal is to get it under control so there aren't other adverse physical and psychological effects."

'Not Fat Because I Wanna Be'

White said that while LaNiyah's health was her biggest concern, she worried about how the weight was affecting LaNiyah's self-confidence. So she and her daughter decided to write about it. The result is LaNiyah's new book, "Not Fat Because I Wanna Be," self-published by her mother. (Her Web site is www.notfatbecauseiwannabe.com.) LaNiyah said it explains how the teasing made her feel. as well as how "you can't judge a book by its cover."

"I came home crying to my mom and dad when I got teased and bullied," said LaNiyah, who is an effervescent and cute little girl. "I want people to learn that bullying isn't cool to do to other people."

White said that when she talked with her daughter about what to put in the book, the way LaNiyah expressed her feelings broke her mother's heart.

"I showed what I had to the editor (whom White hired), and she said that we had to make it more fun to appeal to kids," White said. "But when I read it to my daughter, she said, 'I don't want it to be fun. It's not funny.' "

Proud father

Bailey said that when LaNiyah told him she was writing a book, he was surprised by how motivated and self-possessed she was.

"I started to cry because I knew what she had been through and I was so impressed with her," he said. "As a firefighter, I'm obligated to protect people and it doesn't matter what they look like. It hurts me that people don't have that same decency or kindness toward my child."

White said it's not clear what LaNiyah's future will hold in terms of her weight. She just wants her daughter to be healthy.

"Right now, her confidence level is through the roof," White said. "She told me she wants to be a chef, or day care provider or a firefighter like her dad."

White said she understands that we live in a weight-obsessed world. She said she used to sing in a group, and her record label wanted her to be super-thin.

"They make you feel like you have to be stick-thin," said White, who at 5-foot-6 weighs about 160 pounds. "At my thinnest, I was 120 pounds. I've learned to accept myself the way I am, and I want LaNiyah to accept herself, too, no matter her size."
 

  Please see and share.

[Paul Murphy]

http://www.facebook.com/GoneTooSoonHayleeFentressandPaigeMoravetz?s...

 

   This is a link to a facebook memorial site in their honour.

[Paul Murphy]

   Who is funding the Healthy Eating Physical Activity Model? Why?   Wink Wink !

[Paul Murphy]

http://obesitythunderbay.ning.com/forum/topics/teen-tweets-before-c...

 

  Our children are facing a great deal of pressure, and I hope we can band together to create a meaningful action plan.

[Paul Murphy]

Size Zero obsession goes global

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By IBTimes Staff Reporter | March 31, 2011 5:41 AM EDT

Indicating that the distressing trend of size zero has gone global, a new study has found that obesity and fat are increasingly being stigmatized even in cultures that are traditionally more accepting towards larger people. Predominantly a 21st century phenomenon, the size zero obsession continues to be a grave health concern is one among the many implications of the study conducted by Arizona State University researchers.

* (Photo: Creativecommons)
Indicating that the distressing trend of size zero has gone global, a new research has found how stigmatization of fat and obesity has spread from western countries across more accepting cultures.

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(Photo: Creativecommons)
Indicating that the distressing trend of size zero has gone global, a new research has found how stigmatization of fat and obesity has spread from western countries across more accepting cultures.

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The cross-cultural study of attitudes to obesity to be published in the April issue of Current Anthropology shows that the negative attitudes toward overweight people seen in western countries have spread to countries where large bodies have traditionally been valued.

Arizona State University (ASU) researchers surveyed 680 adults living in urban areas in 10 countries and territories around the world, including Argentina, Iceland, Mexico, Paraguay, New Zealand, the UK and the US; besides surveying people part of cultures that have traditionally been regarded as having positive attitudes towards fatness in American Samoa, Puerto Rico and Tanzania.

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The study found negative attitudes toward fat bodies in all locations surveyed. Researchers said that overweight people were considered ugly, undesirable, lazy or lacking in self control.

Speaking to the press, study author Dr Alexandra Brewis, a biological anthropologist at Arizona State, said, "Previously, a wide range of ethnographic studies have shown that many human societies preferred larger, plumper bodies."

"Plump bodies represented success, generosity, fertility, wealth, and beauty."

The study, therefore, marks the end of the age when only western countries have idealized slim bodies. During the research, Brewis and colleagues found that the responses across the diverse cultures were largely congruent with Western attitudes.

The western obsession with slim bodies took on a concerning avatar with the concept of size zero, which has come to be hailed across the globe now. The "size zero" phenomenon brought in several side-effects, including a significant social ramification of "skinny" being associated with "success".

Over the past few years, the acceptance of size zero has given birth to various adverse health practices. Eating disorders became rampant even as much younger girls started falling prey to the phenomenon.

Subsequently, the obesity numbers have also surged. A recent research found that obesity has doubled since 1980. Three studies published online Feb. 3 in The Lancet, however, established that people in the wealthiest nations are managing to reduce their blood pressure and cholesterol levels.

Meanwhile, as the governments are faced with the health concerns due to the surge in obesity, some efforts continue to backfire as the society continually rejects the stigmatization that comes with increasing awareness on weight issues.
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Size Zero obsession goes global
(Photo: Creativecommons)
Indicating that the distressing trend of size zero has gone global, a new research has found how stigmatization of fat and obesity has spread from western countries across more accepting cultures.

Please see and share.