User blog:UnderAPineapple/In Memory of McKenzie Adams: Victim of Bullying

I was going to finish the second episode of my season tonight, but I'm going to hold that off until Monday, when I have more time. This is a certain story that has been angering me, and I feel should anger everyone else too, and that is the very recent death of McKenzie Adams.

Last Monday, December 3, a 9-year old girl named McKenzie Adams, took her own life. This took place in Marengo County, Alabama, where in her ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, she was mercilessly bullied by her classmates, and subjected to racist verbal attacks by her peers. This was because she was close friends with a white classmate, and McKenzie herself, was black. She was told numerous times to kill herself by her own classmates, and although her mother reported these incidents to the school board, nothing happened to prevent it from happening again. No discipline, no warnings, no help for a young girl who ultimately hanged herself as a result of this torment. It should also be noted that McKenzie moved schools before, because she was also bullied at her previous school.

The fact that a 9-year old even knows how to take their own life, is infuriating, and the biggest problem about this is, is that this is an ongoing occurrence, in which young children nowadays feel hopeless, and ultimately resort to taking their own life like McKenzie did; take 9-year old Jamel Myles who in August of this year, took his life after being bullied by his fourth-grade class, or the May 2018 death of Razy Sellars, who at the age of 10, killed himself, becoming the latest in his family to die by suicide (joining his father and grandfather), or 12-year old Evan Ziemniak, who died in May 2016 at only 12 years old, after continuous bullying caused him to want to escape it the only way he thought he could. Or Samantha Kuberski, who was SIX YEARS OLD when she hanged herself following an argument with her mother.

The fact of the matter is, when people’s lives are put in jeopardy, when it comes to any scenario, the entire world should respond in resistance, and support for whoever is at risk. To say that we have absolved or cured society of all the bigotry and bullying in the world, especially in our public and private schools, is just about the foolish thing you can say. It’s not going to do much do just simply condemn hatred. The protection of our schoolchildren begins with the care provided by the adults, and the tolerance provided by others. If we don’t start owning up to the toxicity that is our society, then the road to the wrong side of history may just be insurmountable.

Thank you very much.