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This is old news, but I just watched the dramatized movie of it again. Very old movie. It’s a true story. “D3ath of A Cheerleader” I’m not into true criminal stuff, I think it’s gross & disturbing (I don’t mind fictionalized movies inspired by true events, I just don’t like seeing documentaries with real footage & pictures and graphic detail and all). But, I always liked this movie before I even knew it’s real. And, it got me curious to look up the true events. This is the real woman here. That’s her as a young girl and her as an adult.

This woman, Bernadette Protti, when she was around 15 years old, st@bbed another young girl to d3ath. The victim was a pretty and popular stuck up cheerleader who was known for being a bully & a b!tch. If she’s portrayed correctly, she was a low-key bully, like not one of the ones who relentlessly terrorize but just always had something unkind/mocking to say to girls she felt were inferior to her. She was shallow and all into herself and boys and her popular friends. I read things online also, by people who claimed to know her back then, and old reports.

This girl here was girl crushing hard. It was purely platonic. She wanted her as a friend and was also kind of jealous and felt she wasn’t as good. When she told the popular girl how much she liked her and how pretty she is, the girl interpreted it as her being a lesbian and coming onto her. She was weirded out by it. If it’s portrayed accurately and the reports are accurate. Obviously, I can’t really know. But, this is how it’s said to have happened. The girl was afraid she would spread around school that she’s gay. So, she st@bbed the ish out of her one night. The girl died.

The k!ller here got off with a slap on the wrist. Seven years out of ten max in juvenile detention. Out at 22 years old, so, practically still a kid with an entire life still ahead of her. She grew up and went on to be a successful business/career woman or something. I read it before but don’t remember all the details.

She was very very sorry for what she did. She confessed on her own, after a while, because she felt so guilty. She said she wanted to die because of it but did not want her own family to suffer, losing her. She said if she could bring the d.ead girl back, she would. If she’s portrayed accurately, I believe she’s telling the truth. She wasn’t a sociopath. In fact, she had “too much” emotion, cared what everyone thought of her, wanted everyone to love her. She genuinely liked the girl she k!lled. She wanted to be BFF’s and thought that would make her popular too.

Also, if you look at her eyes in both pictures here (and all other pictures of her), she doesn’t look like a sociopath at all. So many murder3rs have an empty or “psych0” look in their eyes, like cold or devoid of emotion. They don’t even look human. This girl looks completely normal.

I don’t know. Some part of me understands to an extent, and I also don’t want to be judgmental. She was a child. She was known for being a “good girl” and a “nice girl.” She was a great student and friend to all who knew her. But, something snapped in her, and she went off on the girl. It wasn’t literal “snapping,” it was building up all along until she finally approached the girl.

But, another part of me is hung up on the fact that she took someone’s life away. Another child’s. That girl never got to grow up. Even if she was a b!tch, she did not deserve to die. And, she was only fifteen years old, who knows the person she could have become. She may not have been like that as an adult.

She may have been a b!tch & a bully, but she wasn’t a cold blo0ded murd3rer. And, think of her mom & dad. I don’t know if this part in the movie is accurate, but they got home one night as their daughter was there all bl0ody and being taken away in an ambulance with police all around. They were shocked & confused and had no clue what was going on and watched her die. That’s just not ok no matter what the girl was like.

I kind of think the k!ller should have gotten life in prison. Who was she to take someone’s entire life away and then get to live a normal successful life herself? It wasn’t even like the girl was terrorizing her if the movie and reports are accurate. She just did not want to be her friend. This girl kept throwing herself at her and getting rejected.

She was a very pretty girl, herself, and she had a great family and friends. Everyone liked her. But, she had low self esteem. She wasn’t considered popular and did not make the cheerleading team. She just kind of went unnoticed by everyone in general. She wasn’t of the same social status as the cheerleader, and felt inferior.

Teenagers don’t think like adults do. And, I don’t believe she would have or did go on to k!ll again, so I don’t think she was/is a threat to the general public. She just had it in for that one girl. She acted impulsively. But, in a way, that’s kind of more disturbing than if it was coldly calculated. It’s like she had no control. What’s to stop that again? Somehow, though, I don’t think she would k!ll again.

She did know better. Even a child knows not to k!ll. But, their decision making skills aren’t developed yet and their ability to reason. And it was kind of like self defense in an indirect way. It was not planned, it happened on the spur of the moment. She was hoping to become good friends with the girl that night when it came off the wrong way. (At least that’s what she claimed, the murd3red girl’s family believes it was all planned. There’s no way to really know.) If that girl was going to spread around school that this girl was gay, this girl would have been tormented by everyone at school. Even today, kids and adults are bullied for being gay. And, back then, it was way worse.

When I was her age, I did not fully grasp the finality of d3ath. I knew for a fact when anyone dies, they don’t come back, but I still did not truly grasp it until I was older. I remember when my pets would die and when a boy at my elementary school died in a tragic accident playing with friends and another boy who was sh0t to d3ath, and even at 14 years old when my uncle died, unexpectedly, I knew they weren’t coming back. But, somewhere inside I kind of felt like they could but just never would or something. I knew they couldn’t. But, it just couldn’t fully register.

When I was ten years old, I found a homi.cide victim. A young girl. She was st@bbed to d.eath by her boyfriend, I found out later. She was twenty years old and a victim of domestic vi0lence. That day, he finally k!lled her. I vividly remember all the blo0d. There was so much of it. Her shirt was ripped off and completely soaked in it. And, I remember her thick curly blonde hair hanging out as her body was covered with a white sheet. I remember back then not being able to fully grasp the gravity or seriousness of it because of my age. Even at 15 years old, it was like that. I was nowhere as fr3aked out then as I would be now finding someone like that. I’m not saying this is true for all children. But, it was for me.

Some part of her child brain and especially in the panicked state it was in, may not have fully truly grasped the seriousness of what she was doing.

I’m not infuriated like in some cases when someone gets let off easy. And, if I met her in person and we became good friends and then I found this out about her, I wouldn’t not be her friend anymore. But, another part of me thinks there wasn’t enough justice for the girl who died and her family & friends.

Imagine your daughter being murd3red and the k!ller gets to live happily ever after, no problem. It just doesn’t seem right. The fact that she was only a little girl herself, though, and not a psycho.path, makes it easier to accept.

Death of A Cheerleader – Full movie

Death of A Cheerleader – full movie – modern version

I did not watch the one I have listed, second here, but I plan to. I think it’s the same movie but an updated version.

I welcome opinions & thoughts on this case.

Xoxo Kim