A 9-year-old Alabama girl killed herself after receiving racist, bullying remarks from classmates, her family says.
McKenzie Adams’ body was found hanged in her home in Linden by her grandmother, writes the New York Post.
Her mother, Jasmine Adams, said McKenzie, a fourth-grader at U.S. Jones elementary school, told teachers she was being bullied over her friendship with a White classmate, according to CBS 46 and the Post.
“She told me that this one particular child was writing her nasty notes in class. It was just things you wouldn’t think a 9-year-old should know,” she told the station. “And for my baby to tell me some of the things they had said to her. I was like, where are they learning this from.”
Edwinna Harris, McKenzie’s aunt, told the Tuscaloosa News that the incident has been an “emotional roller-coaster,” and that students told her niece to commit suicide.
“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 b*tch,’ ‘just die,’” said Harris.
The school’s attorney, Alex Brasswell, expressed its condolences to McKenzie’s family.
“Certainly, our hearts goes out to the family and friends of McKenzie and her fellow students as well as her teachers. Demopolis school system has provided grief councilors and crisis councilors at the school since this and ministers and youth ministers have been at the campus since the date of this incident. And we certainly want to extend those services to any students and teachers on our campus as they go through this healing process.”
