A 9-year-old Alabama girl reportedly took her life last week, after enduring bullying from her classmates since the beginning of the school year.
The Tuscaloosa News reported that McKenzie Adams’ grandmother found the fourth-grader had hanged herself in her room. Adams had recently transferred to U.S. Jones Elementary School in Demopolis after her mother and grandmother reportedly complained to the State Board of Education that she was being bullied at her school in Linden.
The girl’s aunt, Edwinna Harris, told the newspaper that much of the bullying stemmed from her niece’s friendship with a white boy.
“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***h’, ‘just die’,” Harris said.
The newspaper described Adams as an outgoing girl who wanted to be a scientist and enjoyed math, cheering, and making funny videos with her cousins. Her aunt said she was learning to play video games with her cousins and loved being with family.
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Harris, an Atlanta-based television host, said she wants to use her platform to spread an anti-bullying message in light of her young niece’s suicide.
“God has blessed me to help others with my platform, and now it’s time to help. There are so many voiceless kids,” she said. “God is opening great doors for justice for my niece.”
Adams’ funeral will be held at her elementary school on December 15 at 11 a.m.
[Featured Image: McKenzie Adams/Larkin and Scott Mortuary]
