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Dr. Drew: Suicidal thoughts = medical emergency

A 15-year-old Staten Island teen, bullied for years and heartbroken over a breakup, took her own life when she jumped in front of a bus just two days after Christmas.

Although the breakup had been difficult on Amanda Cummings, her family said years of relentless bullying pushed her to the breaking point.

Incredibly, bullies kept up the vicious attacks as Amanda lay dying in a hospital. They lashed out on her in text messages and Facebook postings that have now been erased.

“I want to urge other parents to know what their children are doing on Facebook and on the computer, and who they`re talking to, and what`s being said to them,” explained Cecile Weber, Amanda's mother. “I also urge them to know who their children`s friends are, where they live, their phone numbers, and what they`re doing. My daughter kept a lot inside, and she was very secretive. I think that if parents know more of what their kids are doing on Facebook and what`s being said to them, this will happen a lot less."

Attorney Lisa Bloom added, “as parents, we all have to wake up to the fact that for our kids, their online world is more real to them than school and then their home. This is their reality. It`s not virtual reality. What happens on Facebook is tremendously powerful to them and words can kill as we see in this case. So it`s incumbent upon every parent to go online, to monitor what their kids are doing.”

Weber later said that she believes bullies get fueled by the attention they receive by posting nasty comments. “They need to be stopped,” she said. “There has to be something to stop them.”

Weber also said that she blames herself to an extent because she didn’t know how to completely use a computer.

“If you know somebody or you, yourself has ever had ideation, meaning thinking about suicide or planning suicide or thoughts of self harm, that is a medical emergency,” Dr. Drew stated towards the end of the interview. “That needs to be dealt with immediately … don`t assume anything, let the professionals sort that out. You want to avoid tragedies like this."

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