A mother and father in Colorado say their 10-year-old daughter committed suicide over video of a fight with an alleged bully. Preventing a tragedy like this comes down to knowing the signs and know how to respond.

Ashawnty Davis, was only in fifth grade. Her parents said she was a happy girl until everything changed at the end of October when she was involved in a fight after school. It was her first schoolyard fight and it was recorded by another student and posted on an app called Musical.ly.

The video shows Ashawnty and another student fighting, while other kids watched. Ashawnty’s mother, Latoshia Harris, says her daughter had been confronting the girl who had been bullying her. “” her father, Anthony Davis, said she was devastated when she found out that it had made it to Musical.ly (the minimum age for Musical.ly is 13-years-old). Two weeks later they found her hanging in her closet. After two weeks in Intensive Care, she passed away. Ashawnty was seemingly another victim of ‘bullycide,’ suicide caused by bullying. (WGNTV.com)

The number one safety factor in a child’s life is a parent who asks them, “”how are you,”” or “”what’s going on?”” These are the opportunities where a child can share their feelings, successes, and especially challenges. The first step to preventing a similar tragedy in your home is awareness and identification of the warning signs. Secondly, if you learn your child is a victim of bullying, you must respond:

Signs a Child is Being Bullied

• Unexplainable injuries
• Lost or destroyed clothing, books, electronics, or jewelry
• Frequent headaches or stomach aches, feeling sick or faking illness
• Changes in eating habits, like suddenly skipping meals or binge eating. Kids may come home from school hungry because they did not eat lunch.
• Difficulty sleeping or frequent nightmares