facebook tragedy

Read the following article from the Beeld newspaper, for DEBATE : Tuesday 10 February

Topic: This house believes that facebook is the future.

'The time has come' 05/02/2009 23:19 - (SA)
Marida Fitzpatrick, Beeld

Pretoria - The former Affie who shot himself posted a suicide note on Facebook minutes before pulling the trigger.

"May it go quickly and clean, the time has come. Life's a b**** and then you die, so f*** it," was the last Facebook status by Rick Horn, 19, former pupil of Afrikaans Hoër Seunskool in Pretoria.
He also posted a note on the social networking site entitled "Death": "I would never have thought this morning when I got up that the day would turn out like this, but here I am at last, to do what I should have done long ago. Thanks for everything. Mwa."

A friend who has access to his Facebook profile, said this note was posted on Monday morning at about 10:50.

The police found Horn just after 11:00 on an open piece of veld in Polokwane. He'd shot himself in the head with a pistol.

Facebook hate group

His friends suspect problems in his matric year and a Facebook hate group had played a role in the tragedy.

"It haunted him," said Xander Coetzee, 20, his former roommate at Stellenbosch University's Goldfields residence on Thursday.

"The rejection had a bigger impact on Rick than people realised."
Horn made the headlines in 2007 when he laid a charge of assault against the Affies headmaster, Dr Pierre Edwards.

The case was later struck from the roll.

"His mistakes haunted him and people couldn't forgive him," said Ilana Taljaard, 21, a friend.
In 2007, Horn's matric year, a group was formed on Facebook where fellow Affies, among others, cursed and reviled Horn. The group still exists and has 123 members.

"It's cruel and had an enormous impact on him," Taljaard said.

'Sorry dude'

A few of the group members apologised after Horn's suicide.

"Sorry, dude. Hope you have found peace," reads one of the postings.

"I just want to sincerely apologise that I had been part of a group like this. It was a sensitive issue for matrics, but ... no one deserves to leave the world like this," reads another posting.
In the meantime, another group has been started on Facebook to pay tribute to Horn.

Coetzee said Horn had set the bad experiences from his past aside and enjoyed student life, "but we know there was always the sad part of Rick that felt rejected about the Affies incident".

Taljaard talked to him on the evening before his suicide. "He was . . .  happy and said he missed us and wanted to come and visit."

- Beeld