As We React to Alyssa Funke's Tragic Suicide, Let's Refrain from Slut Shaming.

On April 16, Alyssa Funke, a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Wisconsin River Falls, bought a gun and shot herself following sexual cyberbullying. When high school students in her hometown of Stillwater, Minnesota, saw a video she had recorded in March for the amateur porn site CastingCouch-X, they responded by attacking her on Facebook and Twitter. Although the local police are not pressing charges against any of the students, Alyssa's family has said they believe the cyberbullying was directly linked to her suicide.

As Emily Shire pointed out yesterday in The Daily Beast, media responses in the past few days have largely used Alyssa's death to make a point about pornography or bullying. Specifically, Fox 9 in Minneapolis-St. Paul titled their "investigation" of the suicide, "The Pressures of Porn" and described Alyssa as a "young, impressionable woman," speculating on what might have happened in her childhood. Other reports have blamed her death entirely on the cyberbullying she faced in the days leading up to it, minimizing her history of depression.

As media sources approach this case from different angles, one aspect has gone unaddressed: the comment sections. For a disturbing number of readers who did not know Alyssa personally, commenting on articles about her suicide has become a way to slut shame her, even in death. Here are some examples:

On The Daily Mail's coverage:

On the Fox 9 report:

On the Gawker post:

Amid the slut shaming, though, there is a heartening number of commenters defending Alyssa. And reactions on Twitter are likewise encouraging: most express concern about the role of cyberbullying, slut shaming, and stigma about depression. This is evidence that the general population is becoming aware of the severity of these issues - and it's the one silver lining in an otherwise devastating story.

In the coming weeks and months, the details surrounding this case will no doubt continue to unfold. Please - for the sake of Alyssa's memory, her family and friends, and every girl whose views on her own sexuality will be impacted by exposure to Alyssa's story - let's refrain from slut shaming.

If you or someone you know needs help, please don't hesitate to call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-8255.