By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2024-10-30 22:41:43 | Updated at 2024-10-31 17:32:07
20 hours ago
A high school sophomore took her own life after being relentlessly bullied by fellow students at school.
Stephenie 'Stevie' English died on September 22 at just 16 - leaving behind a loving family who only found out about the bullying after she was dead.
An adult friend collecting letters from Stevie's classmates made the discovery - recalling Wednesday how '90 percent of the letters' had been apologetic for repeated instances of bullying.
'I'm so sorry about the way you were treated', some said, according to Amber Murphy - others, 'You didn't deserve to be treated this way.'
Stevie's friends went on to confirm several instances of bullying over the girl's weight and glasses, as staffers at D'Iberville High maintain they received no such reports. One said Stevie had been pushed down a set of stairs by a male student.
Stephenie 'Stevie' English died on September 22 at just 16 - leaving behind a loving family who only found out about the bullying after she was dead
Classmates are seen paying tribute to the Mississippi youngster - after others engaged in a bullying campaign that culminated with Stevie taking her own life
'He just looked at her and laughed and walked away,' 14-year-old Abby Powers told The Sun Herald, laying out the alleged incident she said occurred this past August.
She added how Stevie, one of her closest friends, refused to report what happened, because she didn't think anything would be done.
The high schooler added how Stevie was left with bruises on her back after the attack - one of several incidents that she and others now say led to the girl's suicide.
'As I started getting to know her, I realized she was getting bullied,' the girl who had met Stevie four years ago while playing softball went on to reveal.
'I know plenty of people who told her to off herself.'
She gave the interview alongside her mother, Kiersten Ellis, who claimed she had went as far as to walk Stevie to the school office to report the bullying.
She did so several times, apparently to no avail.
Kiersten went on to recall how kids picking on Stevie would call her 'fat' and 'four eyes', and how the girl at one point approached her to say she was tired of the 'nagging.'
An adult collecting letters from Stevie's classmates made the discovery - recalling Wednesday how '90 percent of the letters' had been apologetic for repeated instances of bullying
Stevie's friends went on to confirm several instances of bullying over the girl's weight and glasses, as staffers at D'Iberville High maintain they received no such reports
Abby described how Stevie would regularly go to the bathroom for long periods before reemerging with bloodshot eyes.
'She would put her head down on her desk in ROTC [Reserve Officers' Training Corps] and cry,' the girl recalled, referring to the junior leadership training and development program for aspiring servicemen available at the school.
Things would only escalate from there, others revealed - with friends then describing a particularly harrowing instance that occurred the week before Stevie died.
It happened outside the school, near its parking lot, several said - where Stevie and her boyfriend were parked in his truck.
They had been having an intimate moment, those familiar with what happened admitted - before adding how, unbeknownst to the couple, at least one boy was recording them from the parking lot.
A subsequent video went on to circulate throughout the school - leaving Stevie beside herself, friends who spoke to the Herald said.
She and the boy were suspended for the rest of the week, leading her dad, Jason Walker English, to get involved.
The doting dad also spoke to the paper, recalling how by the end of the week, he had taken her to talk with her counselor, before staying by her side Friday and Saturday.
Saturday night was the last time he spoke to her, Jason said - recalling how she wished him 'goodnight' before going to bed.
The girl's grandmother detailed how one of those who had bullied Stevie went to her funeral - and recalled how she approached her and eventually accepted her apology
The next morning, she was found dead - from an apparent suicide.
'Stevie was a beautiful person who made a horrible decision, a permanent decision,' her dad said in a statement, adding that he was not ready to be interviewed.
'Before we idolize some hashtag, social media trend or go out and bully someone, remember there is some other boy or girl out there who might see it, search for it or just stumble across it and think suicide is the right answer - It is not.
'There is no hurt, no tragedy or problem, that Jesus cannot fix,' he concluded.
His parents, however, did speak to the paper, to offer even more insight behind the bullying campaign they blame for Stevie's death.
'There's no doubt in my mind that Stevie did what she did because she couldn't go back to school and face that,' said Ginny English, who did not immediately respond to a DailyMail.com request for comment Wednesday afternoon.
She did detail how one of the girls who had bullied Stevie attended her funeral in Long Beach - and recalled how she had learned the child's identity from several of Stevie's friends.
According to them, the girl had once told Stevie that she should kill herself, leading Ginny to approach her at the solemn ceremony.
The unnamed youngster responded by breaking down into tears, leading Ginny to give her a hug, she recalled.
She told the girl, 'We can forgive you, but do better', before her husband, Steve English, stepped in to discuss the subsequent investigation from the Harrison County Sheriff that failed to find any bullying.
An investigator handling the case told him how he had interviewed about '50 or 60 kids', only to find no evidence of any wrongdoing.
Steve even recalled viewing the video taken of Stevie and her boyfriend, which he said was filmed from so far away the only way he was able to recognize her was because of her curly hair.
A close friend who met Stevie four years ago while playing softball said the bullying had gone on for years, while another claimed 'all' other students of the intense campaign
Meanwhile, his wife, speaking to the Herald two weeks after Stevie's death, claimed the bullying is still occurring even 'in death.'
She claimed students were still saying mean things about Stevie and mocking her death to Abby while on the bus.
'They're calling her a whore,' she said - with Abby adding that she reported the incidents to an assistant principal, who let the kids responsible off with a warning.
The girl claimed the bullying continues, with the group responsible even going to come up with a crass name for the kids who had been friends with the deceased - The Goon Squad.
'Every single one of them,' Murphy said of students at the school in Biloxi. 'They knew she was being bullied.'
'Stevie is still being bullied in death,' Ginny added.
Abby's mother, Holly Powers, told the paper: 'What makes me mad is the school says they have zero tolerance for bullies but they don't do anything about it.'
Bullying is prohibited under Mississippi law. Staffers are expected to report instances to higher-ups, who have policies in place to address it.
The school, part of the Harrison County School District, maintained during the now-finished investigation that it received no reports she was bullied.
The account was substantiated by local police.
The district reportedly refused to speak on the subject when contacted by the Herald.
