McKenzie Adams should be getting ready to spend winter break with her family. She should be looking forward to some time off of school and perhaps finalizing her letter to Santa. Instead, her family is getting ready to bury her.
The adorable 9-year-old hung herself earlier this month. According to her family,
McKenzie killed herself because she was being bullied at school for being black. What's even more troubling is that there were clear signs that McKenzie needed help, but school officials failed to act.
Please sign this petition demanding justice for McKenzie. Apparently the bullying was sparked by the fact that McKenzie became friends with a white boy and rode to school with a white family. Students began harassing her, claiming that she was trying to be white. They called her ugly and
said horrible things to her like "kill yourself" and "just die." McKenzie couldn't take it anymore and, devastatingly, she did just that.
Her family says that McKenzie told teachers and an assistant principal at U.S. Jones Elementary School, where she was a fourth-grader — but the school disputes these claims. They say there was no record of bullying. An investigation by the Demopolis City Board of Education came to the same conclusion.
The Adams family had no reason to lie about McKenzie reporting the bullying, but regardless of whether there was an official report, it's hard to believe that teachers and school officials didn't notice such extreme bullying. Especially when
several instances of harassment happened during class, not during lunch or recess.
Please sign this petition to demand that Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall investigate McKenzie's death and how school officials dealt with bullying against her immediately.