Update 03/12/2024 17:45 UTC: Kelaia Turner's mother, Ty Turner, told Bored Panda that she was "gobsmacked" her daughter's story spread globally. She said: "In those 101 days we spent in the hospital, I would tell Kelaia that this would come to pass.
"I've told her that people around the world would know her story. I told her that her story is for God's glory."
Highlights
- Parents are suing a South Carolina school for failing to protect daughter from severe bullying.
- Bullies allegedly visited hospital to take photos of Kelaia Turner during her coma.
- School's inaction reportedly escalated bullying, leading to Turner's attempted suicide.
- Turner's abuse included racial harassment, mocked by peers and a teacher.
Turner's interests were art, music, girl Scouting, and sports, T. Turner told Bored Panda. She added: "She played piano by ear. She sang both in her school concert choir and on our church youth worship team."
However, amid the extreme bullying, Turner turned "into a somber, often sour child...full of angst, anger, eyes full of tears ready to drop at any moment."
T. Tyler shared: "She told teachers she scheduled time with guidance with some of the bullies.
"She wrote administrators asking for help. I emailed teachers, and administrators and went to the school for a conference.
"I demanded parents be involved, and they told me they have no jurisdiction to bring parents of these other students to the table.
"Our school district policy is 0 tolerance. There is not, however much in the way of anti-bullying programs and policies as a matter of fact, our principal explain that as being one of the reasons that punishments weren't significant enough for the behaviors against Kelaia.
"Even now, I am inundated with parents reaching out sharing. Their experiences in the school system, their children being bullied, little to no repercussions.
"School and their reaction and their stance on bullying is an absolute joke."
The disappointed mom revealed that her daughter's prognosis was "to be a vegetable for the next 40 years since the hospital."
She concluded: "We work with her daily on communication with blinking. Trying to get her to remember speech with her Passy Muir Valve."
Parents are suing a school in South Carolina, USA
Image credits: reality_of_ty
Parents are suing a school in South Carolina, USA, after it allegedly failed to protect their 12-year-old daughter, Kelaia Turner, from severe bullying. The abuse allegedly led to her attempted suicide last year, which left her severely disabled. Turner was allegedly harassed for wearing her natural hair and subjected to verbal, physical, and even teacher-complicit abuse.
Trigger warning: - suicide, extreme bullying, racism – Turner’s bullies, who allegedly pushed her to try to take her own life, were found to have later visited the hospital where she was being treated to take photos of her.
Photographs of Turner lying in her hospital bed while she was in a coma subsequently started circulating on social media, The Daily Mail reported on Tuesday (December 3).
Moreover, in a 24-page federal lawsuit against their daughter’s school, Turner’s parents recently claimed that the little girl was physically and verbally assaulted by peers who branded her “roach” and “mustache face.”
Image credits: Ty Turner
Turner’s mom, Ty Turner, reportedly said she believed the bullying began when Turner, a Black girl, started wearing her natural hair to school and that it escalated over the years.
Turner further claimed that, instead of providing support and helping to reduce the incidents, teachers joined in on the torture, The Mail reported.
Turner, the youngest of three daughters, allegedly continued to be bullied so severely that she was eventually found in her bedroom at home after attempting to die by suffocation.
The school allegedly failed to protect their 12-year-old daughter, Kelaia Turner, from severe bullying
Image credits: Association for Learning Environments (A4LE)
According to the family’s GoFundMe page, which had raised $14,625 at the time of writing, Turner was dead for eight minutes “but miraculously survived.”
The fundraiser explained: “After 101 days in the hospital, including 31 in the ICU, she emerged in a fragile state, leaving my husband and me as her sole caregivers. "
“We’ve since struggled with limited mobility, no wheelchair van, and mounting financial stress after both of us lost our jobs.”
Upon emerging from her weeks-long coma, Turner suffered severe brain damage and was left with no control over her body, instead relying on a tracheostomy tube to breathe and a feeding tube, as per The Mail.
Image credits: reality_of_ty
The parents’ federal lawsuit alleged that their daughter faced relentless bullying beginning in August 2021.
The abuse allegedly included name-calling and harassment by both students and Turner’s teacher, Olivia Bennett, who reportedly participated in mocking her.
Despite repeated complaints from Turner’s parents to school officials, including incidents like a student playing a racially offensive song and Turner’s clothes being trashed, the bullying continued with little action taken.
The abuse escalated, leading to Turner’s attempted suicide on March 16, 2023, after she confided her distress to a friend.
The abuse allegedly led to her attempted suicide last year, which left her severely disabled
Image credits: Ty Turner
Image credits: reality_of_ty
The lawsuit claimed the school failed to protect Kelaia, leaving her parents seeking justice for the trauma she endured.
The Turner family said nine individual teachers and faculty members failed in their duties to “provide a culture of safety and an environment free from assault,” according to The Mail.
The parents’ lawsuit reportedly cited violations of both the Equal Protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX protections against gender discrimination.
Turner was allegedly harassed for wearing her natural hair and was subjected to verbal, physical, and even teacher-complicit abuse
The clause requires that all individuals be treated equally under the law, prohibiting discrimination by government entities.
Additionally, Title IX bars gender-based discrimination in any educational program or activity receiving federal funding, ensuring equal opportunities and protection for students regardless of gender.
The family is now seeking actual and punitive damages to cover medical bills, psychiatric expenses, special education, lost wages, life care expenses, disability care, injuries to her psyche and emotional state, and loss of enjoyment of life, as per the British tabloid.
The little girl was physically and verbally assaulted by peers who branded her “roach” and “mustache face”
Image credits: reality_of_ty
In a post shared on Facebook on October 5, T. Turner described her daughter as a bright little girl who learned to speak “quickly” with a “vast vocabulary and incredible level of understanding.
“Every activity we introduced her to, she excelled in: gymnastics, dance, soccer, chorus, and piano,” the saddened mom wrote.
Bored Panda has contacted T. Turner for comment.
"Keep bringing awareness and advocating for our children's safety," a reader commented
