Media Advisory – For Immediate Release

Per the request of the young woman and her family, please change any and all references to the Bloomingdale Library Attack Victim to the Bloomingdale Library Survivor.
 
Contact:  Anna Vuong, 813-856-3822, avvuong@gmail.com
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The family of the young woman, formally known as the Bloomingdale Library Attack Victim, is requesting in all future references to the young woman she be addressed as the Bloomingdale Library Survivor.  This change should take place immediately.  Please read the following written statement from the Mother of the Bloomingdale Library Survivor for more details. 
 
To whom it may concern;
 
Our family is requesting that in all future references to our daughter you refer to her as the Bloomingdale Library Survivor. Neither she nor our family look at ourselves as victims anymore, we are all survivors. Yes, we suffered a major physical blow to our daughter and our family but our spirits were not broken. Indeed, the spirits in our family united with thousands in our community and brought us blessings beyond comprehension. To be a part of the love and the affection that has reigned down upon us from people we never even knew before and to be an active part of a Christian Community that has opened their arms, their hearts and their prayers for us is a life altering experience.
 
God has blessed us in so many ways that it is impossible to name them all. Friends we knew before this incident rallied to our support immediately. Those of you in the news media did an honorable job in telling our story and respecting our Angel’s privacy. But nothing can compare to the way the Christian Community and every day wonderful strangers came to our assistance and have worked to insure that we will receive the help that we need to continue our journey towards her full recovery. We are blessed! Our Angel is alive and well and healing more and more every day and we give God all the glory.
 
Thank you for your cooperation. You in the news media have a difficult job. Reporting sensational stories while respecting the privacy of the parties involved is not easy. We want to thank you for your dedication to be considerate to those of us who have experienced tragedies in our lives; however, we no longer want to be labeled as victims – We Are Survivors! 
 
About the Bloomingdale Library Survivor:
In April 2008, the high school senior, who was granted a full academic scholarship to the University of Florida, was raped, beaten and left to die outside of the Bloomingdale library.  She did not die that night and is slowly recovering from the brutal attack.  The young woman can no longer walk, talk, see or eat on her own but she is improving everyday.  She communicates through widening her eyes, smiling and clenching her fists.  The young woman requires around-the-clock care and attends daily physical, occupational and experimental therapies to aid her recovery.  The recovery is slow but very noticeable and she makes strides towards slowly regaining her own normalcy every day.
 
Her attacker, Kendrick Morris, was found guilty of the crime and was sentenced to 65 years in prison.