North Dakota girl bullied to death---Her obituary didn't hold anything back.
Bob CollinsBob Collins April 4, 2018, 7:05 AM 24 Comments
A 12-year-old girl took her own life in Bismarck, N.D., on Saturday.
Cherish “Chance” was born on July 17, 2005, in Minot, ND, to Nathan Houle and Jessica Chiefstick. She grew up in Minot and began attending school there. In 2009, Cherish and her family moved to Bismarck where she continued her education in Bismarck. Most recently, she was attending the 7th grade in Bismarck.
Cherish was an uplifting person to be around, always concerned for the well-being of those around her. She always had a smile on her face and loved nothing more than to make people laugh. Cherish was very close to her family and enjoyed talking to people about her siblings and parents and loved them deeply. She loved to draw and listen to music.
Cherish experienced intense pain most people her age will never know. Throughout the last 6 months of her life, she experienced continual transition and intense bullying at school. While the news is currently highlighting violence as the result of bullying. Cherish’s support systems saw a very different result. Those who loved Cherish didn’t know how unbearable that pain she was experiencing had become for her. The support and love she was able to receive from those around her wasn’t enough to heal the scars of the relentless bullying she had already suffered. Cherish didn’t harm others or turn to drugs and alcohol to deal with her pain, she took her life on March 31st, 2018.
The word bullying doesn’t begin to encompass ugliness and pain it causes. The ugly truth of bullying is someone who loved Cherish had to open the bedroom door and see what they saw on Saturday. The ugly truth of bullying is those who loved Cherish can’t close their eyes at night because they can’t get the image out of their head. The ugly truth of bullying is doing CPR for 4 minutes and 26 seconds. It’s listening to 911 operator tell you to go faster and push harder. It’s knowing that you didn’t open the door early enough for it to matter anyway. It’s that Cherish isn’t here anymore.
The Houle/Chiefstick family lost a beautiful member of their family. Cherish was a beautiful soul who no longer has to suffer pain and rejection here on Earth.
Cherish’s family and support systems want the public to be aware of her situation in hopes that it will prevent tragedies such as this from occurring again. They are asking that parents talk to their children and find out answers to hard question. Are they being bullied? Are they the bully? Have they witnessed bullying and it broke their heart, but they were glad they weren’t the target today? Did they not know what to do and walked away? Or joined in the laughter because they didn’t want to attract the attention of other bullies in the crowd. We are asking you to teach your children that our words are our most powerful resource and we need to be careful to use that precious resource to positively affect people. Teach your children what to do if someone they know is talking about suicide. Teach them who to call for help.
To those of you who were kind to Cherish, thank you. Your love and acceptance meant the world to her. To Cherish, thank you for coming into all our lives. We are all much better for it. Fly high and carry our love forever. You will be greatly missed.
She is survived by her mom, Jessica; her dad, Nathan; siblings, Santana, Sonte, Maliyah, Nathan Jr., and Yuri; her grandmas, Marina Cheifstick and Judy Nelson; and many aunts, uncles, and cousins.
She was preceded in death by her grandpas, Leon Houle and Noble Mooseamen; her aunts, Deena and Kristen; and her uncle, Leslie.
Visitation will be held Thursday, April 5, 2018, from 10am-12 Noon at Eastgate Funeral Service, 2302 E Divide Ave., in Bismarck, ND.
(h/t: Kari Knudson)
https://blogs.mprnews.org/newscut/2018/04/north-dakota-girl-bullied-to-death/
= new reply since forum marked as read
And that there are children out there who are cruel enough to drive her to do it. RIP Cherish. 
because it won't work anyway? 
I don't accept that answer. I have been to too many funerals of teenagers, younger children and young adults who took their lives to accept that answer.
I often see people say after a school shooting "they should have just killed themselves first". Well here is what that looks like. A victim pushed to the breaking point will lash out, sometimes at others but far more often at themselves.
I will not consider this a win because there is only one victim. I will also not blow it off saying nothing can be done.
Bullies bully because they can, because there are no meaningful consequences. If bullying is met head on, the bullies faces punishment for their actions, the parents are required to be involved it will change. Until these things are done, there will be victims. Whether it is seventeen all at once, in a national story or seventeen individual tragedies that rarely get more than local notice- it will continue to happen.
any time acting hurt or indignant when someone says something about her son, but she didn't, and doesn't have a word to say when her orange sugar daddy mocked a disabled man, or when he verbally abuses and bullies people on a daily basis on Twitter. Donald Trump, hero of bullies everywhere.
Anti-bullying platform. Look up the word irony, madam. What a joke.
RIP, sweet girl.
I told people, but they just said "It's because he likes you." He would say nasty things, insults, call me names in front of his friends, then laugh at me, and at times, snap my bra straps (he sat behind me in class). I talked to the teacher and she said "He does it because he likes you. I'll talk with him, but you should be glad you have enough to wear a c-cup. I'd give anything to have what you have." That did nothing to solve the problem or make a busty 5th grade introvert feel better.
One winter day, I had enough. He always followed me home from school. We lived on the same street. He took my hat and put it in the old fashioned mail box. I warned him. He made fun of my warning. I hauled off and clocked him upside the head with my loaded book bag. He went home with a bloody ear and had to eventually fess up to his mother about how it all happened.
In my case, I was the one that had to bring about the situation to make the bully account for his actions. Today, from the most I can tell, nobody in authority does that, and most kids are too stressed, too afraid of punishment either from parents or the system. They are internalizing it all, unable to speak or stick up for themselves, and blaming themselves for something that is totally someone elses problem.
I wonder if the bullies were white kids and bullied her because she was Native.
