CINCINNATI — By the numbers, there are roughly 130 suicides every day. That works out to around five per hour.
“It's one of those things that if you watch it and you don't feel like you should do something about it, I question, I question, why,” said Leo, who goes by the name 'The Great Londini' online.
Leo is a Marine Corps veteran who said he lived in Cincinnati from the age of 5 until he joined the service.
Out of the Corps, he’s gone on to work for a variety of companies and maintains a certain level of computer expertise that lends itself to his new mission of raising awareness about online bullying and the need for parents to play a more active role in what their kids are doing on social media.
The Great Londini account currently has more than 8 million followers. The videos showcase a situation, comment or other clip referencing bullying followed by a person in a white mask with painted eyes and mouth narrating how the person who bullied the other person online was identified within a few clicks.
“If you don't catch somebody's attention in the first three seconds, you've lost them,” Leo said. “So, for me, the mask was originally to pause people for three seconds longer to figure out why.”
And the message behind the mask is pretty simple.
“My goal was show all of these kids that they're not anonymous, show them that if you cross a line that maybe TikTok won't do anything about it, but I'm going to do something about it,” he said.
In some cases, the narration on the videos suggests the kid’s parents or school were notified of the behavior. In other videos, where it appears adults are involved, a person’s first name and photo are shown exposing them for being the cyberbully.
Leo’s decision to start doing this was sparked by 8-year-old Gabriel Taye’s suicide in 2017.
“I remember it coming on the news and I was saying to myself, they couldn't have said the right age because you assume that people get depressed people get sad, but when they said he was eight years old, I was like, there's just no way,” Leo said.
Taye's family said he had been bullied. Cincinnati Public School’s Carson elementary school security video showed an incident with other students where Gabriel lie motionless for seven minutes.
“It just, it really rocked me. Like it made me feel like this is something that's just terrible,” Leo said. “Then of course, later, my friend lost his son to the exact same reason but more direct towards cyberbullying.”
There is a growing concern of online or cyberbullying on social media and other online platforms. In fact, in 2019 16% of students in grades 9-12 reported being bullied online, according to the School Crime Supplement to the National Crime Victimization Survey. In some of those cases, online bullying as well as in-person bullying in school leads to suicide.
The Great Londini doesn’t work alone, and his team works to prevent suicide and calls out those for bullying.
“The process starts with finding out who their accounts are, the usernames are, and then getting that into the hands of my team on Discord, and then try to use every legal resource possible to identify not them, but their parents,” he said.
Leo said it’s then a process to track down information for parents or school officials when applicable. In other cases, if the activity is deemed illegal he says the information is forwarded to the proper authorities who can then determine if further action is needed.
“Which is a very important point, because there's a lot of people that misunderstand what we're trying to do,” he said. “Our goal is just to get the information in the hands of the people that need it.”
One thing Leo isn’t blind to is the fact that the size of his team is overwhelmed by the demand, and they can’t tackle every single online bully despite more than 8 million people interacting with his videos.
“What I want to do be more effective is to tell the story of Gabriel,” he said.
Putting a name and face to an issue that parents have the direct ability to intervene and play a critical role to stop.
“Don't believe that you can't be that next parent because it happens all the time. It happens a lot more than we talk about,” Leo said.
Leo asked to be identified by a pseudonym for this article due to online and personal attacks for what he’s doing. WCPO verified his real identity prior to sitting down for the interview.
Aside from the online activity, Leo is using his online notoriety to help with veteran nonprofits. You can find out more by going to thegreatlondini.com
If you have a veteran story to tell in your community, email homefront@wcpo.com. You also can join the Homefront Facebook group, follow Craig McKee on Facebook and find more Homefront stories here.
