The National Police in Murcia have said that they have evidence that a 13-year-old girl, Lucia Garcia, committed suicide because she had been bullied at her school in Murcia City. “Her parents (Menárguez y Joaquín García), the regional government and practically everyone else has said so,” said Cirilio Durán, of the National Police at a news conference last Friday.
It will now be up to the prosecution to determine the severity and extent of the abusive treatment the teenager had to put up with daily from her classmates, the two suspected main culprits of which have since been suspended. Lucia’s funeral took place last week.
Lucía, from the village of Aljucer, was picked on for several years with insults about her appearance, being called ‘fat’ and ‘ugly’, to the point where she believed herself to be both and suffered a crushing lack of self-confidence.
The bullying started when she was in primary school and continued after she moved from the Licenciado Francisco Cascales high school in Murcia to the Ingeniero Juan de la Cierva de Patiño secondary school in the city, where the bullies attended.
Lucía had written a suicide note at the end of December, which was found by a janitor at her former high school, and was handed in to the head teacher, and then passed to her parents. Lucía’s schools had been made aware of the problem, and she was being closely monitored at the new centre to ensure she was safe and that any incidences would be stamped on.
One of the pupils had been suspended for five days and another for a day, several months before Lucía took her own life, and a report from the head teacher said they both ‘admitted to their behaviour’ and ‘promised not to bother Lucía any more’.
Lucía’s parents, the police, the education community and Save the Children have urged anyone who suffers from, or witnesses bullying to report it immediately ‘to prevent more lives being lost’.
“What is certainly clear is that, it seems, and her parents have said so, that the young girl suffered psychological problems arising from the pressure that some of her classmates at school were exerting on her some months ago rather than very recently,” said Cirilio Durán of the National Police.
He claims ‘neither the police nor the prosecution’ were aware she was being bullied, and says the incidents happened ‘over six months ago in a different school’.
“Actions were inflicted on the schoolgirl which could lead to a situation of great conern,” Durán says, adding that it will be ‘up to the mental health professionals’ to explain why the teen was in counselling before her death.
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