Suicide of Sladjana Vidovic

Sladjana Vidović (Slađana Vidović, April 4, 1992 – October 2, 2008) was a 16-year-old student at Mentor High School in Mentor, Ohio who committed suicide by hanging herself after enduring extensive bullying by several classmates over issues such as her ethnicity, accent, name, and appearance.

Vidović's parents had repeatedly contacted Mentor High School staff to complain about the abuse their daughter endured at the school and her acute state of distress following months of "Merciless bullying", requesting their concerns be resolved, although staff failed to effectively address their concerns.

The family moved to northeast Ohio in 2001, when she was nine years old.

Initially, the family resided in Willoughby, Lake County, before relocating to Mentor.

Vidović has been described as a pretty, energetic, and charming girl who enjoyed dancing and cooking and who was proud of her heritage.

Her father, Dragan, would later recollect of his daughter, "Nonstop smile, nonstop music", adding his daughter would occasionally drag him out of his chair and dance around in circles to music with him.

According to Vidović's suicide note, although other children at her elementary school occasionally mocked her accent and efforts to communicate in English, she did not suffer severe bullying at Ridge Elementary School, although the school bullying she endured began at this school.

Staff at Vidović's elementary school did make efforts to include her in school functions and provide assistance with language barriers.

However, her parents did attempt to transfer their daughter to another school due to harassing phone calls made to their home during a summer recess.

The suicide of Sladjana Vidović drew nationwide attention to the bullying culture at Mentor High School, which had seen at least five pupils commit suicide between 2005 and 2008 due to bullying at the school.

Sladjana Vidović was the second of three children born to Dragan and Celija Vidović.

Her family hailed from Bosnia and Herzegovina, although Vidović was born in Croatia.

While still attending Ridge Junior High School in 2005, Vidović began attending guidance counseling sessions, frequently reporting her difficulties in forming friendships, her clothing, accent, name and ethnicity being mocked and her enduring accusations of being a lesbian sourcing from rumors regarding her limited interactions with many of her male peers.

She is first known to have threatened to commit suicide to a Ridge Junior High School counselor in April 2007.

The severity of the bullying her daughter endured in junior high school led to her mother requesting her daughter be transferred to another junior high school in the district.

This request was denied.

Staff at Mentor's Ridge Junior High School also noted Vidović exhibited problems with social interactions, which included her being the victim of and—in response—participant in name-calling.

She also had difficulties applying herself to her studies.

Vidović did try to make friends with her peers at this school.

Her younger brother, Goran, would later recollect the almost daily bullying his sister endured at Ridge Junior High School and, later, Mentor High School, would frequently result in Vidović returning home from school upset and/or in tears.

The bullying Vidović endured increased greatly following her enrollment at Mentor High School in August 2007.

As had earlier been the case at Ridge Junior High School, students would mock her for issues such as her distinctive accent and her Eastern European name, with classmates—some of whom had previously been her friends —regularly referring to her as "Slutty Jana" and "Sladjana Vagina."

In one incident dating from November 2007, a teenage boy pushed Vidović down a staircase, but remained unpunished by staff for the incident because of his elite athletic status.

The incident was determined by the school to have been an accident.

In another instance, a girl struck Vidović in the face with a water bottle.

She is also known to have had her locker door slammed into her hand on at least one occasion, and her purse stolen and its contents emptied onto a table.

Likely due in part or whole to this increased bullying, Vidović's school attendance record rapidly declined in tenth grade, and she is known to have occasionally skipped classes and detentions.

Her older sister, Suzana, also recalled that prank callers would frequently phone her sister, or send messages to her cell phone, telling her she and her family should "go back to Croatia", otherwise either she would be "dead by morning" or her tormentors would find her after school.

A friend of Vidović, Jelena Jandrić, later remarked: "Sladjana did stand up for herself, but toward the end she just kind of stopped because she couldn't handle it. She didn't have enough strength."

On October 2, 2008, Vidović committed suicide by tying one end of a rope around her neck and the other around a bed post before jumping out her bedroom window.

She was 16 years old.

Her body was discovered by her sister, Suzana.

In her four-page suicide note—written in both English and Croatian—Vidović wrote that, for more than half her life, she had endured bullying from classmates.

Her suicide note extensively detailed the abuse she had endured at the hands of her tormentors at school, listing issues such as being criticized for her accent, enduring derogatory insults such as being called a "slut" and a "whore", and enduring people throwing food and drinks at her during lunchtime, leading to her eating her lunch alone in the school bathroom.

Professing her love for her parents and siblings, Vidović expressed her belief her existence only made everyone close to her sad, and that she had never made anybody happy in her life.

She ended her suicide note by stating: "I cannot believe I am doing this to myself because I could not wait to grow up and become something but I know I will never become a better child."

Vidović had withdrawn from Mentor and enrolled in an online school approximately one week before she killed herself.

At least three of Vidović's bullies made a point of attending her wake, held just days after her death.

Reportedly, these three tormentors also mocked her body in her coffin at this service.

Vidović's sister would later recollect three of her sister's tormentors—in full view of her family —approached Sladjana's open casket, then laughed, later commenting on social media sites such as Myspace that the pink dress and sandals upon Vidović's body—which she had planned on wearing to her prom—were unattractive.