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GIRL, 11, DEAD IN BATHROOM STALL, MOM WANTS ANSWERS · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. How does a beautiful little
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: girl just eleven years old end up dead in the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: bathroom at school? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Fox Nation
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: and Serious XM one eleven. I'm thinking back on when
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: my twins John, David and Lucy were just eleven years old.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: And there's still babies at eleven, still very much babies.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: Who is eleven year old Felicia take a listen to
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: her on Facebook. Hello, my fellow jack I gives. My
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: name is Felicia loo Albo Morandez and I'm running for
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: classroom representative because I think that bullying is bad and
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: they want to stop bullying and bullies. I also want
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: to make the school a better place. I show sore
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: qualities by listening to others, being nice, doing work I
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: need to do, and respecting my teachers and others near me.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: If you need to talk to someone, I'm here to help.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: One thing I will try to do is have a
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: hybrid party at the end of the year or give
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: Vincent's coupons to people that get A's and bees or
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: all a's. I hope you vote for me and have
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a great day. You know, when you hear Felicia's a voice,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: you would never know that there was any problem at all.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: She sounds so outgoing, in independent, and just wonderful. What
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: more do we know about this eleven year old little girl?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Take a listen to Felicia's mother. Adventurous, affectionate, authentic, beautiful, bold, brave, brilliant, charismatic, compassionate, courageous, creative, determined, empathetic, energetic, fascinating, fearless, funny, genuine, gracious, happy, helpful, humble, imaginative, independent, intelligent, kind, loyal, magical, nurturing, outgoing, peaceful, powerful, radiant, resourceful, unique, uplifting, vibrant.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: These are just some of the words that can be
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: used to describe my daughter, Felicia now my happy hope.
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I've said it before, and I will say it again.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: Her last email will not go unheard. You're hearing Felicia's
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: mother describe her little girl, but I want you to
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: hear Felicia in her own words. Listen. If you are
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: listening to this, my name is Felicia. You may know
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that well, I was one of the last owners of
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: this phone unless you were me. And while you're listening
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: to this from the future, then say hello to future mom,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: future dead, future brother Ryan, future Jah, future Janette, future everyone.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Just say hi to them for me. And never never,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: never be bad, never give up on your friends, Never ever, ever, ever,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: ever ever be a bully, Never be a bully. Those
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: last words say it all. And when I say those
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: last words, we won't hear from Felicia again. Her bright
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: light was put out and I want to know why.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: With me an all star panel to make sense of
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: what we know right now. But joining me first is
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: Felicia's mother, Elena Loalbo, Miss Lolbo. Thank you for being
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: with us. Thank you, Nancy. I just want to thank
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: you so much for being with us, and I am
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: hoping that your voice, along with my Kenna Browne's mother,
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Cheryl brown will have some impact to hopefully make this
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: impossible to happen again. I don't know how many voices
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: have to be raised, but we can try a line
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: up what happened to Felicia. Thank you, Nancy, Thank you
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: for giving Felicia a voice. Sarah was Felicia has always
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: been an advocate for herself and for others, not only
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: because she herself had been bullied but because of the
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: work that her father and I have done, her father
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: as a police officer, dealing with people who were unruly,
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: her trying to give a voice to people, to not
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: have to deal with all of the things that life
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: comes at you, having to help her and her friends
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: that the school just failed to listen to. I appreciate
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: you so much. That voice clip that she left in
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: her phone from two years ago, it's chilling now to
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: listen to. So excuse me if I get a little
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: choked up every time I hear it. It's just all
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: a future note from her. All we want our answers.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I just can't fathom my daughter, who was an advocate,
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: taking her life in that cold, stalled bathroom. It just
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: doesn't make sense to me. None of it makes sense.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: And after nearly nine weeks for the school to not
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: respond to me, just like they didn't respond to my
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: daughter is baffling her emails when unanswered, her cries for help,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: me showing up at the school, just like they went unanswered.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: For all of the other kids who have continued to
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: be bullied within the walls of that school and every
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: school across the nation, Felicia is not the only child
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: This is an epidemic everywhere, and it's not just the children.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: Quite frankly, Nancy, it's our educators being silent. Our educators
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: don't feel like they have a voice to be able
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: to speak up about what's going on within the walls
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: of their classroom. Let me ask you something, Elena with me.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Is Felicia's mother, Elena lo Aalbo, when did you learn
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: about Felicia being found in the school bathroom. I received
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: a phone call at about one fifteen that she was
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: in cardiac arrest and that I had to go to
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: virtual hospital. I was not informed of the means of
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: her death until later that afternoon. So you thought at
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: first that you're eleven year old girl had gone into
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: cardiac arrest basically a heart attack. They didn't tell you
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: what actually happened. Correct, Dave mc joining me crime online
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: dot Com investigative reporter Dave. What was Felicia's cod cause
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: of death? Suicide by hanging. Do you believe that Elena
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: are the parent? No? I do not at all. Guys.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I want you to hear our cut wa from our
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: friends at crime online dot Com. Felicia lo Albo Melendez
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: mother says her daughter has been bullied at school for years.
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: The bullying became so bad that the little girl took
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: it upon herself to write numerous emails to school officials
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: and the school counselor for help. Mom Elena lo Albo
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: says she has even had to personally call another student's
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: parent to ask them to help stop the bullying. Lo
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: Albo says her eleven year old was called derogatory names,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: gum was put in the girl's hair, personal items were stolen,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: and the girl had been told to unalive herself. According
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: to the mom, Felicia punched. The student said that in
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: an effort to move Felicia away from the bullies, she
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: was set to be moved to a new class after
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: winter recess. It never happened. In her emails to the school,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: the preteen even offered a preemptive suggestion of a trauma club,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: a safe place where students could discuss what was happening.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: The mom quoted her daughter's email as saying, it would
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: need a room that is not too big and not
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: too small. We would need a couple of chairs too.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: But I hope this does happen. I, for one, have
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: heard from my friends and others about things that have
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: happened to them, and I think this would be a
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: fantastic thing. Felicia's at last email also pointed out that
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: there were laws to protect the students from being bullied,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: and school officials were breaking those laws by not taking
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: action crime stories with Nancy Grace Back to Elena l Albo,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: this is Felicia's mother, Miss Lolbo. Why was Felicia bullied?
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: I wish I had an answer for that. In the beginning,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: we told ourselves because she had skipped a grade and
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: they didn't understand her, because she was smarter but socially younger,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: because she was still in advanced classes, even though she
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: skipped a grade and still academically advanced, yet socially younger.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I wish I had the answer for that.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: It was different groups of people. It wasn't just the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: same girl or just the same boy. It was different groups.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: What were they saying to her, What were they calling her?
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: All kinds of things, all kinds of derogatory things. It
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't just her looks or just her sexuality, or just
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: what she wore. Well, she's beautiful, She's a beautiful, beautiful
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: little girl. I don't see what It could be about
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: her looks, or she's, as you said, skipped a grade
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: because she's so smart. She was reading chapter books in kindergarten.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: She was an amazing writer. They won't even release her
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: literacy classwork to me, she was an amazing writer, and
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I would love to get her schoolwork. They won't even
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: give me that. All I wanted to videotapes show me
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: that she was alone. Nothing, They won't give me anything. Okay,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: I don't understand that with me. As Tom Ruskin, private investigator,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: president of CMP Protective and Investigative Group, former NYPD investigator,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: you can find him at CMP dashgroup dot com. Tom,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I was stunned when I learned that the school where
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: Felicia lost her life in a bathroom in a stall
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: completely unlike her won't respond to the mother, forget about
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: not sending the videos or her school work. Do you
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: know I've saved every bit of the twins school work
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: there in the ninth grade now, every bit of it
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: each year is boxed away by year for each twin, right,
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: and they won't send that to the mother, much less
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: the video she's referring to about who went into that
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: bathroom with her? How do I know this as a sumicide. Nancy,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: you really don't. And the first thing I'd like to
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: say is how sorry I am for this lobo and
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: her family, and how tragic this is. Law enforcement nowadays
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: is much more open, and not only should the school
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: be sitting down with her and her husband, a law
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: enforcement professor, but should also be showing her what they
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: have even privately, even if they don't release it publicly,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: because it is a private matter right now is under
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: police investigation, they should be showing in the air of
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: open and transparency. They should be showing her family the
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: video and whatever evidence they have at this point in time,
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: for their knowledge and for a portion of their closure.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: So thank you for recognizing that fact. I feel the
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: same way. Unfortunately, because my police detective husband has passed away,
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: I am alone in this fight and they still will
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: not show me any of this publicly or privately. Moreover,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: they did a spiritual cleansing at the school, and it
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: didn't even tell me about this. I wasn't invited, let
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: alone told about it. I had to hear a third
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: party from someone who worked there that they did a
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: spiritual cleansing for my daughter after supposedly ending her life
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: in that cold stall. Okay, David started with me. I
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: profile a lawyer and former APD Atlanta police officer and
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: the homicide Division. Davis uttered, everything is screaming at me,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: this is wrong. Okay. I want to get off our
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: emotions tied up in this thing. You and I both
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: have children, we both have girls, and I want to
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: focus on the events because that's something I can understand.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: We don't even know that this is a suicide. Why
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: won't they hand over that video? Yeah, it's puzzling to me.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Nancy's why the school is being so guarded about this,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: as you're, you know, in the spirit of openness and
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: honesty and transparency, which is, you know, what everyone is
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: striving for these and if there's nothing to fear, why
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: not hand it over? Absolutely, that's absolutely right. I'm puzzled
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: as to what they're recalcentrance is relative to that, and
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: I don't I'm assuming and I may be wrong about this,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: And missus l Alba, I'm so very sorry for your
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: loss in this matter. It's just a horrible story. But
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: I'm assuming that that as this has been ruled suicide,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: there's not a criminal investigation that's pending is that is
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: that correct? As of last Wednesday, the detective told me
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: that it was closing right right. Well, you see, the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: school without a criminal investigation, when without the subpoena power
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: or court orders issued by an investigating agency, the schools
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: under very little pressure to release anything. Well, there's more,
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: David Stutterard, there's more. Karen Stark? How many times have
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: I said, if you don't know a horse, look at
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: its track record with me. Karen Stark, trauma and crime expert, psychologist.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: You can find her at Karen Stark dot com Karen
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: with a Sea. There is a track record of these
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: students bullying her boys and girls. So how do I
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: know what really happened? How do you know what really happened?
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: And this is just so out wages. I am so sorry,
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: I'm so sorry for you lost, but this is so
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: prevalent that they're showing that I need to to know, Nancy,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: that three and five teenage girls feel persistent sadness double
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: the rated boys, and they are seriously considering attempting suicide.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: And there is a link between bullying and suicide. So
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: whether or not that really happened, she killed herself, nothing
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: is being done in this school to take care of
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: this brilliant girl. Brilliant who let them know that there
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: was a problem. It's unacceptable, isn't it true? Miss Elena Loamo.
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: This is Felicia's mother, that Felicia, this little girl eleven,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: actually email the administration and told them that she and
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: her friends were being bullied and that the school was
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: quote breaking the law by not taking action. That it's
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: very advanced for an eleven year old girl. Yes, ma'am.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: She did. Just days before her passing. She emailed her counselor,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: who was also the hib investigator for the school. Nothing
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: was done. When she came home from school that day
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: she had a therapist appointment, so I had her evaluated.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: At that point she was deemed to be okay by
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: her therapist, who she had been seeing for some time
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: before her father passed. Her dad passed away with pancreatic cancer.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: Is that correct, yes, ma'am, after a two week, two
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: day battle of stage four pancreatic cancer. Miss lay Albo,
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: you are battling so much on so many fronts with me.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: Is Nancy Willard? Miss Willard is not only a lawyer
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: but the author of Engage Students to Embrace civility. They
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Positively Powerful, a guide for teens on achieving resilience and
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: empowerment and author I'll be positively Powerful Resilient when things
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: get tough, and you can find Nancy Willard and be
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: positively Powerful dot com. What do you say, Nancy Willard?
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Two children and teens that are facing bullying? And what
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: about the parents? What can we do as parents? Elena,
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: I am so sorry for your loss. And Felicia was
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: doing absolutely everything right. Note that the title of my
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: book is Engage Students to Embrace Civility. Now. I've been working.
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: I wrote the first book ever published on cyberbullying. It
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: was published back in two thousand and seven, and I
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: realized at that time that what schools were doing to
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: try to address bullying wasn't going to work, and that
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: one of the things we really need to do is
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: engage students like Felicia in the efforts to create a
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: more positive school climate. And she was trying to do that.
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, just bless her, that's what she was trying
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: to do. She was reaching out for help and now,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: and she was suggesting positive alternatives. What we need to
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: understand is that what schools are doing say they are
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: doing to address bullying is flat not working. It's not
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: working anywhere. And I was looking over the New Jersey
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: hib elany is that HIB is harassment, intimidation, bullying. That's
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: the statue. That's what they referred to, and it's not working.
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: On the website for New Jersey's Department of Education says
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: we're a leader in statutory and policy approaches to reduce bullying.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: That is bully okay. So what happened was in twenty ten,
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: the US Department of Education recommended that state statutes include
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: a provision that requires that all school districts report the
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: number of bullying incidents that have occurred. New Jersey did,
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: New York did. I've got data from New York several
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: years after they did. The State Controller found that seventy
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: one percent of New York City schools had zero incidents
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: of bullying. Is reporting requirement has resulted in principles or
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: counselors or HIB consultants whatever, deciding that the reported incidents
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: are not really bullying. Oh, I see where you're going.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: They are trying to so the schools are trying to
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: hide the bullying to make their school system or just
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: their school look better, guys. Leading up to this, Felicia
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: had been enduring so much. Her dad had just passed
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: away with pancreatic cancer after a very brief but valiant battle,
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: and she was seemingly making no headway at the school,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: nor was her mom, who had actually confronted some of
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: the parents that were bullying her daughter. But guys, take
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: a listen to our friends at crime online and were
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: cut five. A couple of weeks after emailing the administration
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: about her idea for a trauma club for children victimized
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: by bullying, and a week after she wrote the same
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: administration that she and her friends were being bullied and
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the administration was breaking a law by not taking action.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: A student walked into a restroom at FW Holbey Middle
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: School in New Jersey about one pm and found Felicia
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: unconsciously hanging in a closed stall. Help came fast, and
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Felicio was rushed to the hospital, where doctor's battle to
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: save the eleven year old. Sadly, two days later, she
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: was gone. Felicia died less than two weeks after her
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: father passed away. Her heart broken mother, knowing how bad
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Felicia was bullied, once to see the surveillance video that
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: proves Felicia was alone when this happened. Bullying in schools
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: resulting in suicides it's now rampant. As a matter of fact,
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: just before Felicia lost her life at school eleven year
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: old Felicia, there is a case of Adrianna Cutch in
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: the same jurisdiction. Litsten our Friends at seven ABC. This
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: is the school hallway assault posted online, followed by online
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: bullying that this grieving father said caused his fourteen year
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: old daughter to die by suicide. The cell phone video
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: was taken one week ago. Adriana died Friday. They think
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: it's fun to attack people in make videos impost them
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: getting hit in the face with the water bottled in
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: her Adriana when her Adriana was the embarrassment and humiliation,
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: they just kept coming at her. Michael Kush has not slept,
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: trying to mourn his daughter and get justice for Adriana.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: The freshman was hit in the face with a full
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: twenty ounce water bottle three times on the video, punched
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: and kicked, her hair pulled at school wild classmates laughed
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: and recorded the attack. E Davis Stutter, prosecutor form our
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: Cop also private lawyer. I don't get it. Of all
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: places that can be controlled, what's happening in school can
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: be controlled. I don't understand why this continues. After the
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: first warning, the next incident, the bullier should be expelled,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: and I mean for good, I agree. I mean that's
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: the remedy. You identify. I mean, there's videos of this happening,
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: you identify the people involved with it, and you kick
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: them out of school immediately. One warning and that's final.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: And guys, it's not just Felicia. You just heard about
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: this beautiful little girl, Adriana Kutch. Now she is no
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: longer with us. Joining me right now is a mom
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: who has endured so much she lost her beautiful girl.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: McKenna Brown, a star athlete. I want you to hear
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: a little bit about McKenna's case. Takeing us an hour
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: cut eleven five thirteen, sixteen year old Mckinnah Brown, a
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: fearless goalie on the ice with a bright smile. She
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: lit everything up when she walked in her room. Hilarious,
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: sweaty who's hard, was always open to anyone in need,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: anybody that she felt was feeling left out. She went
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: over said hello, She brought everybody in and connected everybody.
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: She was the glue that held a lot of groups together,
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: including our family. Her parents, Hunter and Cheryl Brown say
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: she put others needs before her own. She touched everyone's lives,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: and yet she was suffering. She was broken, she was
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: her she was alone, She felt like she didn't belong,
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: but she chose to suffer in silence. I like to say,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: because you know, she never said I need help, and
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: our cut thirteen on all these seventh days, before the
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: first day of school, she took her own life. It's
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: been total hell. I didn't know. She's all around us still,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: but she's not here physically, and that hurts. More than
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: a thousand people showed up to pay their respects at
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: her memorial service, including all of Palm Hember find a
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Rescue where her dad is a lieutenant. Cheryl hopes her
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: daughter's story is a wake up call for all parents.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: If you're aware of something that's going on in your
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: kid's life that's affecting another kid, you got to say something.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: You can't just not say something that's not okay, and
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: that could have prevented this. We have Felicia being bullied
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: at school to the point the eleven year old girl
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: asked begs administrators to create a trauma room that's a
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: safe place for people being bullied. Just before that, in
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: the same jurisdiction, Adriana Cuts, just fourteen years old, takes
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: her own life after being bullied and beaten openly in
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: to school hallways. Joining me right now is mckennet Brown's mother,
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: Cheryl Brown. Cheryl, when you hear Elena speaking, what is
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: going through your mind about your own daughter? It makes
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: me stick to my stomach. Nancy and Atlanta, I'm so
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: sorry that I can so absolutely one understand what you're
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: going through. It's deplorable. There's no accountability. The schools just
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: want to kick the can and sweep it into the carpet.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I don't know how many of these beautiful kids who
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: can't see a way out after being bullied or cyber bullied,
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: resort to ending the pain by taking their own life.
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: Something has to change. And Nancy said earlier what the
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: schools are doing, it's not working. They're not and by
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: doing nothing, they're actually doing something which is perpetuating the problem.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: They're not protecting our kids. You know, an interesting thing
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: is that cyberbullying can affect these little victims as much
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: as real bullying. I mean, explain that to me, Karen Stark,
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: how online bullying can affect a child just as much
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: as bullying in the school in the school hallway. Well, Nancy,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: it's really clear that at everything is about being online
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: and social media these days, and so in the past
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: that there was bullying, terrible bullying. It was a small
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: group perhaps that knew. But now you're talking about reaching
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: out across the country. Anybody can see a video where
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: you're being beaten up or here the taunt. It's deplorable.
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: It's not acceptable that the schools are not catching this,
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: looking for it and doing something about it. To Elena Lalbo,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: this is Felicia's mother who was speaking out. I guess
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: what happened to her young girl. What would you tell
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: Felicia when she would come home and tell you about
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: the bullying, because we were advocates for ourselves, it would
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: talk to your teachers, talk to your principle, talk to
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: your counselor make a history about it, you know, keep
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: a paper trail. I showed up at the school. I
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: talked to the counselor, I talked to the principle. I
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: talked to parents. I talked to the bullies parents, take krabmaga.
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: If they get in your face, then you do something.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: We were offline, so well, she was offline, so thankfully
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: we didn't have to experience the online bullying. I can't
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: even imagine if a few years from now, what that
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: would have entailed. Well, what did you tell her when
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: she would come home and tell tell you, confiding you
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: about instances of being bullied? What was your advice to her?
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: It would pick on her because she was smarter than them,
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: and it was encouraging her that it was okay to
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: be smarter than them, that they didn't understand what she
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: was saying because they were not as smart as them,
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: putting gum in her hair, that they were just jealous
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: of her beautiful hair. That you know, of course, somebody
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: isn't going to like you because you're prettier than them.
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: You can't let them make you feel insecure because of
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: the way that you look. All encouraging her to be herself,
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: you know, to not be scared, to stand out when
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: you would confront parents. I mean, you knew who her
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: bullies were. When you confronted a parent. What would they say, oh, no,
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: not my child. Oh they were friends. Oh she took
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: that the wrong way. Oh but your daughter did. What
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: about it? Cheryl Brown, what was your experience with mckinna. Well,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: McKenna would confide to you about her feelings, and the parents,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: you know, it's on ahead Elena, you know, not my child.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: You know it wasn't they had. There's no accountability and
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: the parents don't think that the kids did anything wrong,
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: so of course they're encouraging that behavior by doing that.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: There's no repercussions, there's no accountability. It's encouraging the behavior
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: because there's absolutely nothing being done at home. We're at
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: school to prevent and you also told the school correct absolutely.
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: In fact, they the first incident that she had, which was,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: you know, a personal picture of hers that was distributed
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: to the school, they initially removed that girl from her
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: three classes that she shared classes with. The parents fought
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: back and they put that girl back in her classes.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: But not only was she not expelled. I can tell
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: you this at the Twins school, slurs were used reportedly
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: and on the very first time those children were expelled, expelled.
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: They're not going back as they should be. I don't
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: understand why the school is not acting. Time Stories with
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Nancy Grace too. Nancy Willard joining us, the author of
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: Engage Students to Embrace Civility. What about the schools not acting?
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: There are a whole bunch of reasons that they don't act.
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: And I've been trying to work with schools and trying
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: to help them learn better ways to act for over
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: a decade and I have been unable to get through.
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: I just created an online course, two online courses, but
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: one of the four parents, because I think we have
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: to better empower parents as well as young people. So
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: my on be Positively Powerful dot com. There is a
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: free ebook for parents, and I have an online course.
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: It's empower your bullied child and insist that your child
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: schools stop them. You know, I feel though, Nancy, that
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: both Cheryl and Elena went to the school administration but
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: nothing happened, you know on that vein doctor Kendall Crowns.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns is joining us today Chief Medical Examiner,
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: Tarrant County Lecturer, University Texas Austin and Texas Christian University
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Medical School, Doctor Kendall Crowns. It just keeps running through
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: my mind if Felicia had been found alive, she was
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: still alive when she was found in the bathroom. I
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: don't understand if that's true, if she was immediately taken
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: to the hospital, if they called nine one one immediately,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: why they couldn't save her life. First off, I would
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: like to express my condolences to both of the mothers
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: that are on the show today. I'm sorry for your losses.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: But to answer your question, Nancy, what happened when you
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: hang yourself? It cuts off with circulation on the offygen
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: getting to your brain. You have to get to that
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: individual within a matter of minutes to be able to
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: save them. And if they don't get to them quick enough,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: they may not have died. But their brainstone functions or
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: the functions of your brain that still keep your heart
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: going are still alive. But you're essentially brain dead, so
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: it takes a matter of time for your body to
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: shut down after that. And that's just the nature of
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: hanging it. It isn't as a super quick way to die. Guys,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: I'm listening to doctor Kendall Crown speaking and I'm imagining
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: the scene unfolding when little eleven year old Felicia was
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: found to the right of me. I have planning and
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: I can hardly bear to look down at it. The
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: video of another little girl, fourteen years old, Adriana Couch
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: in the same Jersey air as where Felicia was bullied
• 35:03
  Speaker 1: and tormented at school. The video is of Adrianna being
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: kicked and beaten in the hallway of the school. Somebody
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: took a video, and if I'm seeing it right here,
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: I find it very difficult to believe school administrators didn't
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: see it. And doctor Kendall Crowns, you've seen this before.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: When I look at Adriana's face, she has a bloodied lip,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: her nose is beaten. It's bloody and bruised. This is
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: from not a gang warfare or an attack. There's pictures
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: of her in the tub. She took a picture or
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: parents took the picture of her leg is covered in
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: bruises from the ankle all the way up the thigh
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: where she was kicked at school. Doctor Kendall Crowns, this isn't,
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: like I said, a gang attack. This is at school.
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: Doctor Kendall Crowns, this looks like a beating someone would
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: take as an aggravated assault. Well, that is what it is.
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: I mean they're just looking at someone that's been beaten
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: at a school, and then other people have joined in.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: You get the mob mentality or whatever you want to
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: call it. Now the kids feel that one's another child
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: down and being kicked, they can join in because it's
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: all parts of funds and now they're videotaping it. I
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: mean you've had your episode Notchuanco with Shantay Williams beaten
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: and had her neck broken on video that then people
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: felt confident enough to publish on TikTok because they want
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: to show their accomplishments and get their views because they
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: think that's great. Whereas there's a victim involved in all this.
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: It's being beaten and killed and it's disturbing to me,
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: Like see this actually quite often, and bullying is a
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: horrible thing, and I wish the schools could do something. Well,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: they came and he's referring to the Casa sian Quila
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: Robinson Elena Lawhile about what is the school saying now
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: and are you considering legal action against the school for
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: doing nothing? As of right now, the school still has
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: not done anything. I still have no response from the
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: school or the detectives. As for the legal action, yes,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: that is absolutely something that I am looking into. Something
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: has to come out of this. Somebody has to be
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: held responsible for their inaction, not only for my child,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: but for all the children who are currently going through this,
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: and they are going through it at this moment as
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: we're speaking, children twains, teens are being bullied relentlessly at school.
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, you heard Nancy Willard state that schools are
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: hiding this, sweeping this under the rugs so they continue
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: to look pristine. Tom Ruskin, I mean, are we really
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: going to leave it up to school detectives to stop
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: bullying in the halls. No. That's why police departments and
• 38:13
  Speaker 1: safety patrol officers sometimes with police departments are normally involved
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: in these type of cases and should be because if
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: it rises to the level of a crime, and in
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: these cases more serious than that, you have to have
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: police departments involved, and you have to have counselors involved,
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: and you have to deal with the families in certain
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: times to the mother's point before parents are in denial,
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: they don't understand that their children can be bullies, and
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: the police have to then get involved and sit down
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: with trained police officers to sit down with the parents
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: and explain this is what's happening. Terroristic threats, They are imidation.
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: It is intimidation, and these are aggravated assaults all these
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: bullying victims. Cheryl Brown, could you just tell us what
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: one day is like for you after you have lost McKenna.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: There's not a single day that goes by that I
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: don't cry and still look back and think, you know,
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: if there's something else that I could have done, and
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: it doesn't It doesn't get it does not get easier.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: But I am not giving up. I will make a change,
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: and I will gather all the people that I need
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: to and muster up the energy to make sure that
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: change does happen and keep McKenna's name alive. Her legacy
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: was helping people and she continues to help people. I
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: hear people reach out all the time, even still just
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: talking about us being transparent and talking about it. Even
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: what you're doing and helping to do that, that is
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: making a difference, and conversations are being had with parents
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: and their kids that weren't happening before. I just wish that,
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: you know, I wish there had been more transparency at
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: Mchannis School in particular, those conversations could have been had
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: what was her school? Eastlake High School? Who come to
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: find out there were five suicides in six years and
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: we knew nothing about them? Again sweeping get under the rug.
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: Elena lo Albo, tell us what one day is like
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: for you without Felicia. Oh God. I put every face
• 40:33
  Speaker 1: in the school and in our police department. And the
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: last eight and a half weeks has just been in
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: that hope that they were going to do the right thing.
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: I sent her into those walls every day in that hope.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: I encouraged her to advocate to them because I believe
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: that they could do the right thing. And for eight
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: weeks that have been my only prayer to no avail.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: Hearing everything that Nancy said really hit because she's right,
• 41:12
  Speaker 1: it has. They lie about the hip numbers, and they're
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: continuing to lie about everything, and it's just every day
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: is painful. Every day is painful. Our children's voices are
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: not going to go unheard, and their legacies will continue because,
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: like you said, our transparency now are going to start
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: these much needed conversations. I have been silent for eight
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: and a half weeks and been the hardest moments of
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: my life. I miss her so incredibly much. My happy Hope,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: Felicie mL, my happy Hope. Guys, if you are in
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: fear or to a point that you feel you or
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: your child cannot go on, go to Suicide and Crisis
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: Lifeline Textra dial nine eight eight. We are not waiting
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: for justice to unfold. We are fighting for change. Goodbye friend,