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Alabama School Says They Found No Evidence Of Bullying In McKenzie Adams Suicide

The child's mother said the family reported past incidents of taunting to the Alabama State Board of Education.

In the case of 9-year-old McKenzie Adams, who committed suicide Dec. 3, no reports or evidence of bullying have been found, according to Demopolis City Schools.

Adams’ family said the child was taunted at U.S. Jones Elementary School since the beginning of the school year for having a white friend who gave her rides to school.

Despite her family’s claim, Alex Braswell, attorney for the Demopolis City Board of Education, sent an email Tuesday which said they have not found any reports corroborating their accusation, reported The Tuscaloosa News.

“We have concluded our internal investigation to the allegations of bullying which led to this senseless death. There have been no findings of any reports of bullying by either the student or family. The findings of this internal investigation are consistent with the results of the investigation of the Linden (Alabama) Police Department at this point in time,” according to the statement.

McKenzie’s aunt, Eddwina Harris, told The Tuscaloosa News Adams transferred to U.S. Jones after her mother and grandmother made a complaint to Alabama State Board of Education regarding incidents of bullying at her old elementary school in Linden.

“She was being bullied the entire school year, with words such as ‘kill yourself,’ ‘you think you’re white because you ride with that white boy,’ ‘you ugly,’ ‘black b-tch,’ ‘just die,’” Harris said.

Tim Thurman, superintendent of Linden City Schools, said he also could not verify any evidence of bullying against Adams at Linden Elementary School, where she went to kindergarten from Nov. 2014, to Feb. 2015.

Although the school system has seemingly refuted claims of bullying, the Demopolis and Linden police said they are conducting further investigations.

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