TECH DEATH –
Oct. 24, 2025 – The mother of a 10-year-old girl who died by suicide earlier this year said she now regrets giving her daughter a smartphone at an early age, especially for use at night.
“She deserved to live life, and I will never see her go to a homecoming or prom,” Summer Bushman told CBS News. Autumn, of Roanoke, Va., died on March 21, according to her obituary. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia determined the cause of death to be suicide, CBS affiliate WDBJ reported; Autumn’s family also confirmed her cause of death in an interview with NBC affiliate. “[The school] said they had handled it, and that was about as far as it went. But, as far as we know, what we were told — at least by our daughter — was that it kept happening,” Mark Bushman, Autumn’s father, told WSLS in late March. “This is an age where they have tablets and they have phones, so it’s happening around the clock. They can’t really escape.”
“She came to me crying and she was really upset,” Summer recalled to the same outlet. “And she said, you know, ‘Mom, I’m just, I’m really stressed out. I’m being bullied. Can I please stay home from school tomorrow?’”
