A 10-year-old girl, Isabella Faith Tichenor, has committed suicide after being bulled in school over her race and being autistic.
According to her mum, Brittany, she was picked on by her school mates because she had autism and dyslexia, while her granddad, Gregory, said she was also bullied for being black.
Brittany said the abuse was reported to the school in North Salt Lake, Utah, U.S, but no action was taken to protect her daughter.
She said;
“As any parent would, we reported this abuse to her teachers, the school administration, and the district administration, she told a press conference.
“Nothing, nothing was done to protect Izzy. Children did not have their behaviour corrected so the torment of this child continued day after day.
“You really wouldn’t have known she was going through that.
“So that was the hardest part. She must have really internalised this.”
The little girl’s grandmother, Paula Harris, said they will now be Izzy’s “voice” to fight against the problem of bullying.
Harris said;
“We are going to be Izzy’s voice, we are going to ring the bell as loud as we can because we are going to stop this bullying. That little girl had spark, that little girl had hopes and dreams.”
A press conference was organized to address the issue and the Tichenor family alongside the PTA representatives of Foxboro Elementary School were present.
Speaking with 2News, a parent, Breanna Larson said, “Everyone has a role here in this failure, and everyone has a role in the solution. It is on the parents, it’s on the students, it’s on the teachers, it’s on the administration.”
Izzy’s grandfather, Gregory Tichenor told the Sun: “My daughter went to the teacher and she went to the principal and nothing was done. This has been going on for months and nothing was done. It was both verbal and physical.”
He maintained that he thinks Isabella was racially abused and was called the “N word” by other kids.
“We think this was racially motivated. This is what they do. This is their make up but it needs to change,” he maintained.
