Parents Sue School After Bullies Drive 12-Year-Old Girl To Attempt Suicide… Snuck Into ICU To Take Pics Of Her Unconscious Body, Calling Her A 'Roach’

"Kelaia Turner, now 14, suffered more than a year of physical and verbal abuse at the hands of five peers at the Dr. Phinnize J. Fisher Middle School in Greenville, her heartbroken family wrote in a lawsuit against the district and nine faculty members who were accused of negligence.

Seeing suicide as her only way out, Kelaia hanged herself in 2023 and was dead for 8 minutes before paramedics could revive her, with Kelaia suffering severe brain damage and remaining in a coma for weeks.

While Kelaia was in the coma, one of the bullies made their way inside the ICU and snapped photos of the intubated girl, posting the pictures on social media and spreading rumors about her injuries, the lawsuit says.

The lawsuit claims the bullying started in 2021 when Kelaia began wearing her natural hair to school, with students calling her “roach” and saying she looked “like a man.”

Kelaia’s teacher, Olivia Bennett, allegedly joined in on the mockery and would acknowledge the victim when the bullies would ask her, “Where’s the roach?”

Things only escalated in 2022 when Kelaia got into a fight with one of the bullies, with school officials opting to suspend her but not her tormentor, according to the lawsuit.

On May 23, 2022, Kelaia’s parents said, students targeted their daughter by playing an offensive YouTube video called “The Black People Song,” which teacher John Teer allegedly allowed to be played aloud without reprimand over the video’s racist nature.

Later that year, the bullies went on to pour water on Kelaia’s clothes and then threw them in the trash, the lawsuit states.
Through all this, the stricken child’s parents allege that the district failed to take any meaningful action to stop the torment, with Kelaia opting to hang herself with a belt in her bedroom on March 17, 2023.

Her mother Ty Turner posted this video to Facebook to raise awareness to bullying." - Dom Lucre |