A heartbroken Alabama family is grieving the shocking loss of a 9-year-old girl who committed suicide after being bullied, the Tuscaloosa News reports.
McKenzie Adams reportedly hanged herself on Dec. 3rd in her home, outside of Montgomery. She was found by her grandmother and was said to have been teased and targeted by bullies in her class at US Jones Elementary School until it became unbearable.
“She was being bullied the entire school year, with words such as ‘kill yourself,’ ‘you think you’re white because you ride with that white boy,’ ‘you ugly,’ ‘black bitch,’ ‘just die,’” her aunt, Eddwina Harris told the outlet.
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Students reportedly taunted her because of her close relationship with a white male classmate, her family said.
Harris said she now intends to use her voice to talk about bullying after her niece’s death
“There are so many voiceless kids,” Harris said. “God is opening great doors for justice for my niece.”
McKenzie’s mother, Jasmine Adams, told CBS 42 the taunting was relentless.
“She told me that this one particular child was writing her nasty notes in class,” McKenzie’s mother said. “It was just things you wouldn’t think a nine-year-old should know.”
“Part of it could have been because she rode to school with a white family,” she continued. “And a lot of it was race, some of the student bullies would say to her ‘why you riding with white people you’re black, you’re ugly. You should just die’. ‘”
McKenzie was transferred to the school after being bullied at another school in Linden where she lives.
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Her family blames the school system which they believed failed them.
“I just felt that our trust was in them that they would do the right thing,” Adams told CBS 42, “And it feels like to me it wasn’t it wasn’t done.”
“We are working fully with the Demopolis and Linden police department. They are doing a joint investigation of these allegations,” said schools attorney, Alex Braswell in a statement.
Funeral services are scheduled for Saturday at McKenzie’s school, U.S. Jones elementary in Demopolis.
