Izabel Laxamana, 13-year-old, had jumped from a freeway overpass located in Tacoma to end her life.
People have been speculating to what the cause has been, and before her death, a video had been circulating around the community that her father had posted of cutting her hair short. She was facing consequences from her actions, and he says in the camera, “Man, you lost all that beautiful hair. Was it worth it?”
The young girl was caught sending an illicit photo to a boy, hence the precautions that her father did in order for her to learn her lesson.
The small rebuttal is heard in the video, where her father asks: “How many times did I warn you?” She answers back in a quiet manner, “Twice.” The video was a personal reminder that was supposed to be kept for her eyes only, yet it had been leaked to the public and people speculate, was one of the causes for her death.
Loretta Cool, Tacoma Public Information Officer, commented that Laxamana “was a 13-year-old that made some poor choices, meaning that she didn’t have to kill herself.” Yet, the consequences were dramatic enough for her to be pushed to that certain point.
Izabel’s father, Jeff, had cut all of her hair off besides one strand. The next day at school, school faculty tried to help her hide the damage by braiding her hair into a French braid. It still would not cover up the damage done with the video being released online, for it had circulated from phone to phone. Even school officials had a clue as to what was going on, calling child protective services.
The community watched a girl suffer the consequences from flirting with a boy, taking her own life from public humiliation.point 210 |
Just before jumping off the bridge, she had written notes to her family and friends before giving the device to a friend in school.point 108 | She then decided that it was time to head to the bridge and jumped off, dying in the hospital the day after the incident.point 206 | 1
There has been other incidents that are similar to Izabel’s, and that there is no clear way to understand the motives leading up to her death. There was a mother who had forced her daughter to stand at a busy intersection, holding a sign that read “I was disrespecting my parents by twerking at my school dance,” and another situation where a parent caught her 13-year-old daughter posing as a 19-year-old, forcing her to confess on camera.
It is tragic to hear about stories like these, yet they are still bound to happen. Prayers to the young girl and her family.