12-Year-Old Girl Commits Suicide At A D.C. Boarding School
A girl was found dead due to an apparent suicide at a boarding school in Washington D.C. on Tuesday (Jan. 24), reports Fox 5 D.C. The 12-year-old was found unconscious by her roommate around 6:15 a.m., and paramedics attempted to revive her.
Police are reportedly investigating the SEED School of Washington D.C. Parents were told to pick up their children from school that morning. Unfortunately, bullying is a prevalent thing at the institution where many parents say their own children were victims of it.
“It kind of touched me really deep because of the situation that has been happening with my son at this school,” said Mami Buxton. She explained that after two years of her son enduring constant bullying at SEED, she decided to take him out of the school after he had been sexually assaulted by another student.
“I know first-hand what it’s like for [students], considering the situation with my own son and how he feels about how they operate when it comes to situations as far as bullying is concerned,” she continued. “He feels no one is listening and no one is helping.”
The exact reasons as to why the unnamed young girl committed suicide are still unknown, yet it marks a pivotal point that highlights the growing number of young black women, ages 12-25, who are taking their own lives at increasing rates.
As the Huffington Post pointed out in 2015, a set of data was released from the Journal of the American Medical Association that year which stated that the suicide rates among young black children have doubled between 1993 and 2015. Additionally, the National Center for Health Statistics found that the suicide rate among young black girls ages 10-14 had tripled, according to The Root.
Experts say the increasing suicide rates are a product of the constant oppression young black people face in society. In 2015, Dr. Sherman James, a research professor of epidemiology and African-American studies at Emory University, told The Guardian:
“I think that African Americans, more so than a lot of other groups, certainly more than whites, are socialized to expect that life will disappoint them. Over the centuries, African Americans developed a variety of cultural mechanisms leading away from depression and fatalism,” he added. “The preservation of good mental health at the cost of one’s physiological health.”
Further details on the 12-year-old’s case are still pending, but SEED released a statement to FOX 5 regarding the child’s death:
We are deeply saddened to report that a SEED DC student unexpectedly passed away this morning. This is of course a terrible tragedy for the family first and foremost as well as for the entire SEED community. We ask that you respect the privacy of the family and of our community of scholars and teachers in their mourning. We can provide no further information at this time.
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