An 11-year-old New Jersey girl repeatedly told school officials she was being bullied, but administrators did nothing to help her, according to a lawsuit filed by her grieving family. The child hanged herself in a school bathroom in February.
An 11-year-old girl who was bullied for years had repeatedly reported it to school officials, and even offered to start a club for other students being tortured by their peers, but New Jersey administrators did nothing to help her, according to a lawsuit filed by her grieving family.
Felicia LoAlbo-Melendez was in the sixth grade at F.W. Holbein School in Mount Holly Township. She hanged herself in a school bathroom in February. Her mother, Elaina LoAlbo, told local reporters at the time that Felicia had last emailed administrators one week before her death, telling them she and her friends were being bullied and that the school was “breaking the laws” by not taking action.
On Thursday, LoAlbo sued the school board and several administrators, saying bullying continued at the school and that her daughter had endured years of abuse from her peers and had been pushed down a flight of stairs, taunted about her Latina roots and her support of LGBTQ rights, told she was ugly and that she should "unlive herself," according to the lawsuit.
“She would come home crying on a regular basis,” her mother said at a news conference with her lawyers. “It just became intolerable there.”
In a Facebook video posted after the press conference, LoAlbo is seen wiping away tears as she sits in her car. "It's just draining," the mother says. "I bury my kid and I'm still getting emails regularly from other kids who are going through this. It's just infuriating."
The child, and her parents, had repeatedly informed school officials about the bullying, according to the lawsuit, but nothing was done.
"He death came on the heels of multiple emails that Felicia sent to her counselors and school officials, first initiated by Felicia’s parents, regarding ongoing and systemic bullying that Felicia was suffering from at the school," the lawsuit alleges.
Felicia's father, Alex Melendez, a decorated New Jersey Transit Police detective, had died from cancer days before the girl took her own life. Both parents had encouraged Felicia to stand up for herself and to report the bullying, the lawsuit says.
The suit names the Mount Holly Board of Education, the Township of Mount Holly, school district superintendent Robert Mungo, principal Daniel Finn and Terry Convery, a counselor and anti-bullying specialist at Felicia's school.
Inside Edition Digital reached out for comment Friday to the named defendants, but has not heard back.
Felicia was a compassionate and bright student who had skipped a grade and played in the school band, sang in the choir and was an anti-bullying advocate, her mother said.
Beginning in 2021, schoolmates taunted Felicia by calling her "fag," "gay," "ugly" and "furry," according to the lawsuit. Students also encouraged her to "unlive herself," the lawsuit alleges.
In one email to school officials, Felicia offered to start a "Trauma Club," where bullied students could talk about their experiences, the lawsuit says, including text from the girl's message.
“I was watching TV and thinking about the things in my life that happened to me and I got a great idea. Instead of drama club, it would be a trauma club ... I would help and provide as much as I can. I for one have heard from my friends and others about things that have happened to them, and I think this would be a fantastic thing," the email said, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit claims that other students continue to be bullied at the school, and that it has been a longstanding problem.
“They failed to do anything. We need to stop this. Our children are dying,” one of the family's attorneys, Diane Sammons, said during Thursday's press conference.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that in 2021, suicide was the second-highest cause of death for people between the ages of 10 and 14. The same was true for people between the ages of 20 and 34.
Most susceptible were females, ethnic minorities and members of the LGBTQ community, the CDC reported.
The wrongful death civil suit seeks unspecified damages from school officials for allegedly failing to protect Felicia and failing to act on the family's bullying reports.
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