**Trigger warning** Seventeen months ago, then 15-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons was gang-raped by four boys in her friend’s house. One of her rapists took a picture of the assault and circulated it around her school and community. Classmates saw the photo not as evidence of rape but as proof that Parsons was a “slut.” When she most needed community support, she was bullied and propositioned instead.

Last Thursday night, Parsons hanged herself in her bathroom; three days later, on Sunday, her family took her off life support.

In between her rape and her death, Parsons struggled with anger and depression; she moved; she made new friends; she hospitalized herself. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police took a year to investigate the rape, but ...