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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums9-year-old kills self after racist taunts from class: family
McKenzie Adams relatives said she hanged herself Dec. 3 in her home in Linden, about 100 miles west of Montgomery, and was discovered by her grandmother, according to the Tuscaloosa News.
Since the start of the school year, the fourth-grader had been the target of bullying at US Jones Elementary School, where she was teased over her friendship with a white male classmate, according to her family.
Her aunt, Eddwina Harris, said the group of students taunted McKenzie by telling her to commit suicide.
She was being bullied the entire school year, with words such as kill yourself, you think youre white because you ride with that white boy, you ugly, black bitch, just die, Harris told the newspaper.
Harris said shes speaking out about her nieces death because she wants to promote anti-bullying...
https://nypost.com/2018/12/10/9-year-old-committed-suicide-after-classmates-taunted-kill-yourself-family/
OP link is to the NY Post because it's more to the point than local coverage:
https://www.dispatch.com/news/20181209/9-year-old-girls-suicide-shocks-small-alabama-community
mrs_p
(3,012 posts)Breaks my heart
Delphinus
(11,808 posts)Kittycow
(2,396 posts)Fatemah2774
(245 posts)So sad on so many levels....
sandensea
(21,526 posts)God rest McKenzie Adams soul.
Raster
(20,996 posts)...
Garrett78
(10,721 posts)PaulX2
(2,032 posts)Until they are 18. Then the whole state can have a day to learn about bullying / racism, and show them the pictures of the kids behind bars.
I know Alabama thinks the wrong side won the civil war, but kids should be able to go to school without this kind of crap.
I know. I was a bully, and I was bullied relentlessly.
It should not be allowed, and someone needs to make a point.
Duppers
(28,094 posts)That poor child.
Where were the teachers?
PaulX2
(2,032 posts)This is Ahlabama.
JudyM
(29,122 posts)more benefits. Should be part of every schools curriculum.
Duppers
(28,094 posts)Thanks, Judy.
ZeroSomeBrains
(638 posts)secondwind
(16,903 posts)Seems to me if white kids are spouting hatred, it would show on their ugly faces across the schoolyard...
This is too horrific to contemplate.
Celerity
(42,630 posts)Now
70 years ago
A 107 year old ex-slave and his wife hearing the preacher of the Ku Klux Klan, Talladega, AL, 1948
Merry Christmas!
Victor_c3
(3,557 posts)My oldest daughter just turned 10 and is in 4th grade. I couldnt imagine her or any of the kids in her class going through or doing any of that.
Kids are a reflection of their parents and upbringing. The parents are just as culpable as the kids involved.
ffr
(22,644 posts)Vote, like your life and those around you, depends upon it.
Yosemito
(648 posts)I cannot tell you what I would do in this case.
My childs death would only be the beginning.
allgood33
(1,584 posts)ecstatic
(32,566 posts)I'm no stranger to depression, even when I was that age... but in the moments when I felt suicidal, the method I thought about was a bottle of pills, NOT hanging or anything that final.
DallasNE
(7,392 posts)We just don't know enough to assign blame yet.
It starts with the parents as it appears the girl gave them details. I presume they confronted school administration. How did that play out.
Where we're the teachers that they didn't confront the parents of the bullies - even expell the bullies (after a hearing). The school should be a no bully zone given how serious the consequences are with inaction.
NewJeffCT
(56,827 posts)such a terrible loss.