On January 3, 2018, Amy Everett — affectionately known as Dolly — took her own life after suffering a vicious campaign of bullying at the hands of her peers. She was just 14.
In a heartbreaking new interview with A Current Affair, her parents Tick and Kate have now revealed the extent of their daughter’s abuse.
They explained that the teenager, who was previously the face of Akubra Hats, started to “withdraw” when a boy at her school convinced her to take “inappropriate photos” of herself.
“As a parent, you don’t know how to deal with that,” Kate said.
“She just went from the most enjoyable little girl to someone that did end up in trouble at school there’s so much that I found out now, as opposed to then, and it probably would’ve made the outcome so much different.”
“She started to withdraw slowly by the first term, and in her year nine. In that last year, I just think, ‘Oh god, she’s just changing’. And as a parent, I guess you say, ‘This is part of adolescence. Is this who she is?’.”
“I think there was a whole bunch of stuff going on that we literally did not know about.”
The incident eventually led to teenager being suspended from school for drinking.
“I kept onto the school. I said, ‘This is not my daughter. Something is going on, there is a ring of people’,” Kate said. “I said, “There are other kids involved’. They told me Dolly was a liar. And I said, ‘All kids make mistakes and I believe her. This time I believe her’.”
On January 3, 2018, Amy Everett — affectionately known as Dolly — took her own life after suffering a vicious campaign of bullying. Image via Facebook.
The devastated parents also detailed an email their young daughter had sent from school that alerted them to just one example of her tormentors sickening actions.
Kate said Dolly had asked in the message: “How long do I have to stay? Can I please leave sooner?”
“I started to panic because they were ganging up on me and I didn’t want to fight so I walked away,” the email read. “And one of them started screaming at me calling me a dirty slt, b**h and screaming about how I should kill myself and to go cut some more.”
Following the shocking exchange, the parents enlisted the help of a councillor and thought about pulling their daughter out of school.
WATCH: Kate and Tick are determined to raise awareness of youth suicide in their beloved daughter’s honour. Post continues…
But the teenager was adamant that she would return after the school holidays had finished.
“She was going to prove that she could do it and that she was tough enough to be Dolly again, I think,” Tick told host Tracy Grimshaw. “She had me convinced that she was right.”
Just two weeks before school was to go back, Dolly made the family dinner — her signature dish of potato salad, coleslaw and steak — before enjoying a game of cards and heading to bed.
Half an hour later, the unimaginable happened: Kate and Tick found Dolly’s lifeless body.
“There was nothing we could do,” said Tick. “It’s the most horrible thing you, anybody, any parent … you just, you should never have to do that.”
Dolly (R) is pictured with her sister Meg, mum Kate and dad Tick.
Owing to the isolation of their bushland family home, the parents were forced to wait for nearly four hours before emergency services arrived.
“You know, being isolated was another battle, you know sort of three and a half hours before anyone else could get there. The longest night of our lives really. You know, she’s right there and there’s nothing you can do.”
“I actually just laid with her for hours,” said Kate. “Cuddled up with her for hours and just, I just made a promise to her that, this wouldn’t be in vain … that I was so, so sorry that I hadn’t made better decisions.”
“There was nothing I could do to save her. I don’t know if anyone thinks this is the answer to their problems, it’s not. It just gives them to somebody else.”
“She had so much to live for,” Kate continued.
“I wish she could see herself through my eyes and not through the eyes of the people who made her feel like that.”
Kate and Tick have since been vocal in trying to raise awareness around cyberbullying.
If you or anyone you know is suffering, please contact Lifeline (lifeline.org.au) on 1311 14 or visit Headspace at (headspace.org.au). Visit Beyond Blue at (beyondblue.org.au) or call 1300 22 4636. You can also contact the Kids Help Line on 1800 55 1800.
