Today I’m going to tell you a story about an amazing 11-year-old girl named Felicia LoAlbo-Melendez. During the 2022-2023 school year at F.W. Holbein Elementary School in Mount Holly, NJ, she was in the sixth grade, and had shown enough proficiency to have skipped a grade. She pursued activities such as chorus, drama, and clubs dedicated to supporting sexual diversity as well as the Random Acts of Kindness Club. She had put forth suggestions about starting a support group for victims of bullying; her idea was to form what she called a “trauma club.”
When it came to trauma, she had first-hand experience; she was being systematically bullied over a period of two school years because of her LatinX background, perceived flaws in her physical person and others’ opinions about her own sexual identity.
The incidents were documented in reports. A student placed a puddle of water on her seat to wet her lower clothing when she sat down. A teacher was present when the student drew attention to Felicia, and the class laughed. The teacher did nothing. Felicia was pushed down the stairs. Felicia was subjected to racial slurs, along with the usual bully tactical words such as “ugly.” A student put gum in Felicia’s hair, and cut a clump out. And this being the age of social media, Felicia was cyberbullied at all hours. Students also told her to “unlive herself.”
Her father ultimately lost a battle with cancer in January. Two weeks later, on February 6th–a Monday–Felicia was found at school unresponsive. She was ultimately pronounced dead two days later, cradled in the arms of her mother. Her death was ruled a suicide, with no suspicion of foul play.
The (remaining) family is filing a lawsuit against the school district, its superintendent Robert Mungo, as well as the principal and faculty who knew about the systematic destruction of Felicia’s life and failed to offer any assistance. In fact, in the two weeks between her father’s death and her own, a supposed plan to adjust Felicia’s schedule to steer her away from potential assaults by her bullies when she was likely at her most vulnerable, failed to materialize.
So life at the school is continuing as normal. In fact, the school’s homepage still bears an icon designating it as a “No Place for Hate” school by an arm of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
They certainly don’t hate bullies at F. W. Holbein Elementary School. And the bullies are now in the seventh grade.
(Sources: Burney, Melanie, “Family of 11-year-old who died by suicide say she was bullied”: Philadelphia Inquirer, November 3, 2023, page B1. Also F.W. Holbein website: https://holbein.mtholly.k12.nj.us/)
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