Posted on 09/28/2006 4:00:35 PM PDT by WmShirerAdmirer
An eight-year-old girl hanged herself after watching a suicide scene in a cult film, an inquest has heard.
Kyesha Freeman, who fashioned a makeshift noose, was discovered by her mother, Marika Keize, who was eight months pregnant. Paramedics revived Kyesha, but she died in hospital four days later.
Police recovered 18-rated DVDs and videos from her bedroom - including Girl, Interrupted. The film, which stars Winona Ryder, Angelina Jolie and Whoopi Goldberg, is set in a 1960s psychiatric hospital and focuses on a group of disturbed young women.
In a shocking sequence, a patient, played by Brittany Murphy, commits suicide by hanging herself. Police believe that Kyesha may have been trying to imitate the scene in her bedroom in Selly Oak, Birmingham, when she died in November last year.
After the hanging, one of her teachers at the nearby Watermill Primary School discovered the message "Help me, help me" in an exercise book.
At an inquest at Birmingham coroner's court this week, Kyesha's headteacher, Jennifer Edginton, said the message had not been there three days before the death, but said it did not necessarily mean Kyesha was unhappy. "With a small child, it could have been anything. She could have been asking for help with her spelling test," she said.
Aidan Cotter, the Birmingham coroner, recorded a verdict of accidental death, saying: "I am not even halfway to believing that she intended to take her own life.
"Whether she was playing out something she had seen on a DVD or whether she was upset and looking for attention, I don't know. What I am sure about is that she could not form necessary intent to take her own life."
"Adults ought to be careful what films are available to children, because it's easy for a child to see something and imitate it without realising what it is."
This article: http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1433552006
I too wanted to hang myself after watching that dreck-fest.
Why in the Holy Hell was her mother allowing her to watch that stuff for?
I've got to believe a gum commerical has more intellectual value than anything these three could put out.
The preceding message brought to you by the Greater Center For Ebonics.
No, but it may mean the mother needs to reexamine child rearing and not allow here new child to watch mature content movies until it is mature.
Quick, let's ban all DVDs.
I saw that movie. It was way too adult for such a young child.
For those unfamiliar with the movie, it's about a nymphomaniac (Winona) who commits herself and ends up friend with a psychopath (Jolie).
Eventually a friend of theirs commits suicide. People have no clue how delicate a childs mind can be.
For crying out loud parents!
Get involved in your kids life!!!!!!!!!!
No 8 yr. old should have DVDs that her folks don't know about!!!!
OR, CDs for that matter!
Or put some obnoxious label on them that doesn't remotely represent the views of the artist.
No, we need to ban rope and string!
Agreed. (I was being sarcastic with that remark though)
"Or put some obnoxious label on them that doesn't remotely represent the views of the artist."
Or, a warning that the DVD should not be swallowed and should be rewound after use. Then I'll feel safer because I'm a Kool-aid swilling, flower picking, tree hugging, head-elbow-kneepad wearing weenie! Please save us and our children from ourselves!
LOL!
Girl Interrupted Trailer
http://youtube.com/watch?v=JQC9-xdEHPs
My bet is that Kyesha spoke fluent ebonics prior to her demise.
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