Please Sign My Petition to Remove the "No Respect For Suicidal Teens" Facebook Page

[Content note: suicide]
Yup, I’m using my blog to promote something. But it’s a very important something.

In my blog post earlier today I mentioned this atrocious Facebook page, which cruelly mocks suicidal teenagers by calling them “selfish” and “ignorant” and inciting them to kill themselves. I had reported it to Facebook, and I just received this email in response:

“Thanks for your recent report of a potential violation on Facebook. After reviewing your report, we were not able to confirm that the specific page you reported violates Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities.”

Now, clearly, this is some bullshit, because Facebook’s terms include the following:

“6. You will not bully, intimidate, or harass any user.
7. You will not post content that: is hate speech, threatening, or pornographic; incites violence; or contains nudity or graphic or gratuitous violence.”

This Facebook page is violating these terms by bullying, intimidating, and harassing teens who are suffering from mental illness and are considering taking their own lives. Furthermore, it certainly qualifies as hate speech against people with mental illnesses. The page also attempts to incite suicidal teens to kill themselves with posts that say things like “go drink some bleach,” and, unsurprisingly, it also contains racist material.

So I started a petition to get Facebook to take the page down. Please sign it here and share it.

The thought of a struggling teen stumbling across this page makes my stomach churn. I don’t care if it’s a “joke” or not; it should be taken down.

This is a small thing, but change begins by refusing to allow hatred and ignorance like this in our society, including on the websites we use.

Update: Thanks so much to everyone who signed the petition! The page is now gone. However, its creator left some comments over on Greg Laden’s blog and has made it clear that they intend to bring it back. Pretty unfortunate how vested in their hatred some people are.

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Please Sign My Petition to Remove the "No Respect For Suicidal Teens" Facebook Page
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23 thoughts on “Please Sign My Petition to Remove the "No Respect For Suicidal Teens" Facebook Page

  1. 4

    Ugh, this is really messed up. I wonder will the tireless FREEZE PEACH defenders come and tut tut at you for wanting to remove this page? Anyways, signed and welcome to FTB!

  2. 7

    Absolutely signed. What horrible people. and there’s even a little ‘I was depressed and went and fixed it’ story in their comments as though their experience is like every other persons.

    I feel dirty for even looking at that page.

  3. 9

    I didn’t sign it to be honest.

    Facebook has their policies and we have the right to complain about it. But just because someone chooses to be an insensitive, hate filled asshole that doesn’t mean I have the obligation to shut them up. Yes. I certainly have the right to do so, as do they.

    I would rather the page stay up and then mock them back. But maybe that is my own particular style asshole.

    Either way, the point is moot. The page is gone.

    1. 9.1

      You make a good point; however, starting and signing a petition is also an act of free speech. I’m not “shutting up” anyone, because Facebook still gets to make the choice of whether to heed the petition or not. Boycotts work the same way, except with added economic pressure. By your reasoning, petitions and boycotts are never okay unless they are directed at a law enforcement agency with the intent of getting it to enforce the law where it has been failing to do so.

      1. That’s not exactly my reasoning…

        But I see your point though.
        Hell if I had a dime for every boycott or petition I signed on to.

        I wonder though if in this case it might been better to keep them around and then say get a sponsor to donate to The Trevor Foundation in a big public show of support.

        In any case Facebook took them down for now. I read the page, not the worse thing I have seen on the net, and I thought it might even be a Poe.

        I didn’t sign the petition, but I’ll sign a check and drop it in the mail to Trevor or one of the local suicide hotlines.

  4. 11

    If you really want to make a point, delete your facebook page. In the process, there’s an exit survey. Tell them you find their policies deplorable.
    That being said, I can see why these kids are angry. When I was 18, my sister attempted suicide. She was bipolar and took her entire bottle of Efexor XR. I think it was a total of 51 pills. She wasn’t living at home, so some of her friends drug her to my parents’ house. The pills had been in her system for nine hours before she made it to the doctor. It was too late to pump her stomach or to do anything. Everyone just had to sit and wait while she was slipping in and out of consciousness having grand mal seizures. She was at the hospital for several days before she was transferred to an in-patient psychiatric care facility.
    During all of this, I was livid. I was angry that someone could be so short sighted and try a permanent “solution” for a temporary problem. I was angry that she had made everything about her again even though she’d chosen to do drugs and run away from home. I was angry that I was stuck babysitting my other sister (she was 6 at the time) for my entire Christmas break instead of getting to enjoy some time away from college. I was angry about a million other things too.
    I don’t agree with the sentiments that were said to be on this page. I wouldn’t encourage anyone to kill him/herself. Perhaps insensitive remarks or jokes are how they’re dealing with the anger though. Unless they’re using the page to list people who have attempted suicide so they can be mocked and harassed, I honestly don’t see the problem. It’s insensitive and tasteless, but no one has any obligation to look at the page.

    1. 11.1

      “…no one has any obligation to look at the page.”

      No-one has any obligation to host such a page, either.

      “Unless they’re using the page to list people who have attempted suicide so they can be mocked and harassed, I honestly don’t see the problem.”

      You “don’t see the problem” with people encouraging others to kill themselves, as long as it’s not explicitly directed at one specific individual? I encourage you to re-think your position.

      “Perhaps insensitive remarks or jokes are how they’re dealing with the anger though.”

      “Perhaps” these individuals should not be freely provided with the resources to spew hatred at others.

    2. 11.2

      Effexor prescribed to a Bipolar person? The suicide attempt could possibly be a direct result of the effexor.

      I have very mild bipolar tendencies and take effexor (mostly for social anxiety)

      I went through an “ornery phase” for a while before the meds started working, but rather than suicide I was tempted to commit arson.

      When the meds did start working I was approaching hypomania for a while. It was no big deal, but I can see this med might not be a great choice for full blown bipolars.

      That said, I find it interesting in one sentence you complain your sister was making it “all about her”, then in the next you complain about having to babysit during college break. Perhaps ‘all about me’ runs in the family! Your bipolar sister nearly died and you just bitch and moan! WTF!

      As for the petition I admire the motive, but I don’t think I would have signed it. At least not without trying other things first.

  5. 13

    It’s back up: https://www.facebook.com/pages/No-Respect-For-Suicidal-Teens/527422947277609

    Thanks for posting about this, by the way. I’ve twice seriously considered suicide*, one time about two and a half years ago after my first year of college and once about a month ago. The most recent occasion finally forced me to recognize my depression and seek help for it. On both occasions, a suicide prevention hotline likely saved my life. I don’t know if I would be here today if on either occasion I’d come across this page or something like it before making the decision to call the hotline.

    This kind of thing disgusts me beyond words.

    *By which I mean I’d decided how I was going to do it and was in the process of writing a letter of explanation and last wishes. The thoughts of suicide came and went more frequently, but only twice did I resolve to go through with it.

  6. 15

    #11 Gee, jasmyn, why stop at people who have mental illnesses? Why not encourage kids with heart defects, cystic fibrosis and cancer to kill themselves? They’re bloody inconvenient to family and friends, too.
    If your sister suddenly developed diabetes, and needed treatments and a special diet would you have been so angry? Why the anger because the breakdown is in how her mind works?
    Sorry, but I don’t see any difference between someone who has an illness in the body and an illness of the mind, whether it is caused by a genetic defect, an injury or a failure of some body system. We just are decades behind in diagnosing and treating disorders of the mind.
    My mother, who is in her mid-80’s, has been bipolar since she was 18. She has tried suicide many times and received shock treatments all her life (yep, they still do them). She really only became stable when she was put on Lithium decades ago.
    I am awed by the courage she has shown all her life, carrying this burden and the shame that so often goes with it. If she was born without legs and valiantly soldiered on, we would admire her for fighting so hard for normalcy. We should show the same respect for people who are fighting disabilities of the mind.

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