Family of Amanda Cummings vows legal fight
The family of 15-year-old Amanda Cummings is calling on her friends and classmates to come forward and reveal the students who they say viciously bullied her before she died Monday after jumping in front of a city bus.
“I want names. I want to know who these kids were,” Amanda’s uncle, Keith Cummings told Metro yesterday. “It’s not right we had to lose my niece over this. It was years of torment she went through.”
Cummings, a Staten Island sophomore, died from injuries she sustained after she jumped in front of a bus on Dec. 27, said the NYPD.
According to Keith Cummings, a suicide note Amanda was carrying when she died read that she was unable to live after recently breaking up with a 19-year-old man.
Cummings said his niece’s cell phone held threatening text messages she had received from both the 19-year-old and from other girls at her school, warning her to stay away from him.
Keith said he wants to report those who bullied Amanda to police.
“I want charges filed. I want something that’s going to give them torment in their life like my niece had,” Cummings said. “I want justice.”
A sister’s request
Cummings’ sister, Dawn Weber, wrote a message on Amanda’s Facebook wall yesterday, asking for information:
“As a sister, a mother, and a human being with a beating heart that is broken, i am begging you kids, anyone with any concrete proof of bullying toward my sister, please let me know. Please. I need witnesses willing to step forward to make legal statements.”
Grieving mother lashes out
In addition to asking people to come forward with the names of Cummings’ alleged bullies, her mother, CeCe Weber, also lashed out yesterday on her daughter’s Facebook wall. “This is to all you evil son of a b****** that picked on, talked about and threatened my baby, I HOPE YOU DIE and I HOPE YOU SUFFER,” read her post.
A call for awareness
Vivian Rosario, a Manhattan mom to an 11-year-old, said the news of Cummings’ death struck a chord with her after reading about it in yesterday’s Metro. She was so moved she wants to organize a march or rally against bullying in an effort to prevent other teens from committing suicide.
“Enough is enough,” Rosario said. “It starts at home. It’s about raising your child to empathize and be respectful.”
Follow Cassandra Garrison on Twitter @CassieatMetro.
