Editor's note: If you're feeling suicidal or having suicidal thoughts, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
MILACA, MN — Parents of a Minnesota sixth grader demand change after their daughter took her own life.
According to ABC affiliate KSTP, 12-year-old Stephanie Johnson was found in the bathroom at her middle school on April 27, she was airlifted to a hospital where she died four days later.
Stephanie's parents say that their daughter was a victim of bullying and that other students would tell their daughter to go kill herself. Her mother, Melissa Johnson, says she notified the school to make them aware of the situation. "It's not just bullying. They're actually telling her to harm herself," she said.
"Someone told her to just go to the bathroom and kill herself. And that's what she did," her father, Chad Johnson told KTSP.
The family says that despite the school district's anti-bullying policy, proper steps are not being taken to combat the issue of bullying. The Milaca school district reportedly has had two students kill themselves in the last school year.
Johnson believes that the district needs to be more proactive in dealing with bullies — getting to the root of the problem with bullies, as well as victims.
Two attorneys in Minnesota are considering pursuing legal action against those responsible for protecting the sixth grader's civil rights, according to KSTP.
The school district has not commented on whether or not it is investigating this incident.
