Just A Few Days Before Starting Her Senior Year Of High School, This 16-Year-Old Sadly Took Her Life After Being Bullied And One Of Her Classmates Says The School Is Pretending It Never Happened
On August 7, sixteen-year-old McKenna Brown of Palm Harbor, Florida, sadly took her own life just days before starting her senior year.
The teen attended East Lake High School and loved spending time with family, practicing her faith, and playing hockey.
Tragically, though, McKenna was also a frequent victim of bullying.
And in the days following her passing, parents Cheryl and Hunter Brown began speaking out about the bullying that pushed their daughter to such a heartbreaking extreme.
“She was broken. She was hurt. She was alone. She felt like she did not belong, but she chose to suffer in silence because she never said, ‘I need help,'” Hunter said.
Countless community members also took to Facebook to share their condolences for the Brown family and their memories with McKenna in the newly-created In Loving Memory of McKenna Elizabeth Brown Facebook group.
According to Emma Stewart, the Senior Class President, McKenna’s high school’s administration has reportedly been acting like “nothing happened.” She detailed this and more in a statement entitled, “East Lake Faculty and Staff, Do Better.”
“Since freshman year, we never knew how quick our ‘last first day’ of school would come. Little did we all know that McKenna’s last first day would come way sooner,” Emma’s statement began, which was posted on Facebook by Cheryl Brown.
Facebook; pictured above is McKenna
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“Instead of talking about where we are applying to, graduation, and senior festivities, we are talking about how the same school that McKenna invested so much into is brushing her death under the rug like she never even existed.”
“I am so frustrated that suicide is still ignored and viewed as insane, and we all know McKenna would say the same exact thing if she could. If you have not realized it yet, suicide is real and is happening right in front of your eyes. Your students are mourning without support, closure, and validity.”
“With that being said, something has to change. We could theme a football game for her, do a moment of silence around the track, hold an assembly, make a memorial– the list goes on. So, let’s come together as a school and make sure this never happens again while we honor and look back on her legacy.”
The statement was well-received on Facebook– gaining over five hundred likes, prompting one hundred and thirty-seven shares, and spurring eighty-two comments.
Cheryl Brown also underscored Emma’s message by saying, “We all need to do better!”
Since then, the East Lake High School student body has organized a Change.org petition reiterating the school’s lack of action and asking to plant a legacy tree in McKenna’s honor.
“The school has done absolutely nothing to honor McKenna so far– has not even put out a message about it. Planting a small tree professionally only costs $150- $300. There is more than enough room either in the student parking lot or next to the gym. And the engineering department can easily CNC her a plaque,” the petition read.
“As the student body, let’s make sure her name is not forgotten at ELHS!”
And even though the East Lake High School’s student body is only made up of just over two thousand and three hundred students, the petition has already received five thousand and five hundred signatures.
Now, people from the greater Florida community and beyond are speaking out, too.
“I’m a mental health therapist, and the stigma needs to stop!” wrote one petitioner, Kelly Turner.
“It is unacceptable for a school to stay silent,” wrote Alicia Zimmer, an educator at a different high school.
Facebook; pictured above is Emma’s letter
To help support the East Lake High School student body in their fight to remember McKenna and stop the stigma surrounding mental health, you can visit the Change.org petition linked here.
Or, to view the complete statement prepared by Senior Class President Emma Stewart, visit the link here.
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