Her family reacted by battering her with negative words constantly about the shame she had brought upon the family and what type of person she was to get pregnant at such a young age. Teuila could not cope with the things that were said to her. She felt bruised, humiliated, helpless and alone. One day she took her own life. *Names changed to protect the identities of those involved Teulia is not alone. The National Council of Churches (NCC), especially the Samoa National Youth Council (SNYC), expressed serious concerns about the rates of youth suicide, believing harsh verbal discipline/violence to be the worst contributing factor. This is supported by Judge Sa’aga of the Family Violence Court who told the Inquiry that, “many of our children are dying because of the things that come out of our mouths”. This was also reinforced by the MoP who is often the first responders in situations of this nature: “Recently we dealt with a few cases of suicide and this all relates to family violence issues. In one case a father must have told off one of his sons and the words he used were verbal abuse and quite mean and they woke up one morning and the guy had hung himself. It all relates to family violence because of the verbal abuse.” Police outpost officer, Inquiry hearing 7.1.3 Violence towards children borne of frustration A further recurring theme throughout the Inquiry was the observation that the use of physical and harsh verbal discipline / violence often occurred not because the child had done something wrong but because the parent was using that as an excuse to take their frustrations out. “We normally smack/beat our children because we say they are naughty but when we think about it, even when the child is playing with his toys we say he is naughty, when he climbs up the chairs we say he is naughty. Maybe the cause is us. The parents not understanding the mind of the child and their developments. We are beating them up for no good reason.” Inquiry public consultations participant The Inquiry participants shared that when children are disciplined for actions or circumstances directly because of their behavior, the risk of extreme violence is much higher. This is inevitable as they are not addressing the root cause of that frustration, instead projecting it on to the child and allowing the real root cause to go unaddressed.