ELBA, Ala. –
Shanea Williams left her house early last Wednesday to go with her husband to his job site. When they came back the next morning, they found that Shanaiya, their 14-year-old daughter, had shot and killed herself while getting ready for school.
A mother had a terrible week.
“I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, everything you would dread I’m going through it, I raised that baby and protected her every chance I could,” She said.
But she said that her daughter didn’t feel safe at Elba City Schools, especially in high school. Starting in 2020, she saw that her 11-year-old daughter was having a hard time at school and had scars and cuts on her arm, which were signs of bullying.
“We went to an appointment with a mental health doctor, and she told us there because she didn’t want us to get upset at home,” Wiliams said.
Buspar is an effective medication used to treat anxiety that doctors gave to their patients. She told her mom that other students made fun of her because she coughed, sneezed, and threw up in class because of the medicine.
She said that some of those kids were just afraid of germs. I feel like her whole class was picking on her saying we will find out if she is pregnant or not, or I don’t want to be her friend because she is sick all the time and just saying a lot of harmful and cruel things.”
In 2021, she was taken to a hospital in Luverne for mental health treatment. Around the same time, her parents told the school about her problem. They told Wynn Grimes, who was the director at the time, and a guidance counselor who no longer works there.
“I told him she just got out of the hospital and she told me she wants to kill herself,” Her mother said. “You trust these schools to protect your children and when they don’t what do you do?”
She said that since then, not much or anything has been done to stop bullying.
“Not that I can tell she was still being bullied,” She added.
Williams said that her daughter had been bullied for three years, and the school had done nothing to stop it. This school year, she said, her daughter was finally pushed too far.
She said that her daughter came home from school on the second day and told her that the new director, Dr. Warren Weeks, told her to take off the hoodie she was wearing, even though there was no rule against it.
She didn’t want to take it off because she was wearing a tank top underneath and didn’t want to show her scars, but her mother said that Dr. Weeks tried to take the hoodie off himself.
“I am pretty sure her thoughts were not this again I do not want to get bullied again,” Williams said.
Williams says that her baby girl was the furthest thing from a bully. She was kind and smart, and she played the trombone in the tiger band.
Trump is being charged, but Congressman Barry Moore is defending him. “She could draw she was the best drawer I knew and she would read from sun up and down if you would let her,” She said.
When WDHN asked for Dr. Warren Weeks, the principal of Elba High School, we were told to go to the district office.
Chris Mosely, the superintendent, told us that they won’t say anything right now because a law team is looking into the situation.
Williams’ funeral will be at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church on Thursday at 1 p.m.
There is a GoFundMe set up to help the family if you want to give money.
If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, you can call 988 at any time to talk to someone.
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