Nine-year-old Alabama resident McKenzie Adams committed suicide on Dec. 3, after experiencing intense bullying from classmates. Her grandmother found her hanging in their bathroom. After performing CPR, McKenzie was rushed to Bryan W. Whitfield Memorial Hospital, where she was later pronounced dead.
“Something happened that day from one of these bullies that pushed my niece over to the edge,” Adams aunt, Eddwina Harris, 33, tells People. “It’s an emotional roller coaster. We’re heartbroken.”
According to CBS News, Adams was receiving rude notes from classmates and was bullied on the bus due to her race. Her school U.S. Jones Elementary is predominantly white, but the bullies were both black and white.
“Some of the student bullies would say to her, ‘Why you riding with white people? You’re black, you’re ugly. You should just die,'” explained the child’s mother, Jasmine Adams.
“Certainly our hearts goes out to the family and friends of Mckenzie and her fellow students as well as her teachers,” school officials said in a statement after the child’s tragic suicide. “Demopolis school system has provided grief councilors and crisis councilors at the school since this and ministers and youth ministers have been at the campus since the date of this incident.”
READ MORE: 10-Year-Old Girl Kills Herself After Schoolyard Fight With Alleged Bully Lands Online