Last Updated on: 11th April 2022, 03:39 pm
Who is Izzy Tichenor? Biography, Wiki
A school failed to protect a 10-year-old black girl Izzy Tichenor from bullying, which ultimately drove her to suicide, according to a newly published study.
The Davis School District in Farmington, Utah, did not adequately respond to complaints filed by Isabella “Izzy” Tichenor’s mother, Brittany Tichenor-Cox, in the months leading up to her death in November 2021, the commissioned independent investigation found. by the superintendent.
Izzy Tichenor’s Age
Her current age was 10 years.
Black Utah Student Killed Herself After School Ignored Mom’s Complaints
He discovered that the distraught girl, who was awaiting a possible autism diagnosis, had sprayed Febreze on her clothes after other students and even a teacher told her she smelled bad.
The special education teacher in question said she asked Izzy if she had showered when she commented on her smell.
Police Investigation Report
The report also revealed that staff at Foxboro Elementary School, which Izzy attended, were not even aware of the district’s formal definition of bullying.
He added that according to CNN, Foxboro promotes an atmosphere “where bullying … cannot be reported, investigated or addressed.”
However, the investigation found that the school had not done enough to protect the girl and respond to her mother’s allegations of bullying in a timely manner.
The Justice Department report, released in October 2020, found black students were disciplined more severely than white students and “regularly” called the N-word. White students also called Asian students “yellow” and “dodgy,” according to the report, and urged them to “return to China.”
The Davis School District was hit just weeks before Izzy’s death by a Justice Department investigation that found officials had spent years ignoring claims of racial harassment by black and Asian students and their families.
Izzy Tichenor Cause of Death
The subsequent investigation into Izzy’s death was unable to determine whether the harassment she suffered was racial, although it did not rule out the possibility.
He explained: “Questions about race, disability, and poverty sometimes overlap, and when they do, they can further complicate already difficult situations.”
“It can be very difficult to separate one from the other.”
“When a college student told Izzy she needed to wash her hair, that comment could have been racial animosity, it could have been an innocuous comment, or it could have been a veiled insult about poverty.”
Izzy’s older sister had complained of racial bullying by students prior to her brother’s death, including an incident where she was called the N-word.
The agency’s discovery came in a report and settlement agreement released in October, a month before Izzy took her own life. The school district’s investigation began in July 2019.
DailyMail.com has reached out to Tichenor family attorney Tyler Ayres and the Davis School District for comment.
Family
Ayres previously said that Izzy’s family reported the bullying to teachers and school officials but felt ignored.
In response, the Davis School District said in a statement that it would review the report’s findings and formally apologized to Izzy’s family.
“We take it seriously. We are committed to continuing our extensive and ongoing efforts to create a welcoming environment for all students in the Davis School District,” the statement said.
Brittany Tichenor-Cox has said in the past that Izzy has expressed reservations about her time at Foxboro Elementary School in North Salt Lake since the beginning of the school year.
She told her mother that she didn’t think her teacher would like her.
“She doesn’t say hello to me. She says hello to all the other kids,” Tichenor-Cox recalls telling Izzy.
Tichenor-Cox added that the teacher told Izzy that she smelled bad, a comment she believes other kids also made in the schoolyard due to her daughter’s skin color.
Izzy was so affected by his remarks that she began bringing a bottle of air freshener to school to use as a perfume, bringing Tichenor-Cox to tears.
The mother recalled at one point contacting her daughter’s teacher, who she said refused to take any action.
Tichenor-Cox said the Teacher told him
“I’m not going to find out for her,” said Tichenor-Cox, the teacher told her. She let her know.
The teacher also allegedly told Izzy to sit down when she asked for help and he didn’t want to engage with her.
Tichenor-Cox also says that Izzy was teased by students about her looks and her autism, so she was awaiting a formal diagnosis at the time of her death.
The school’s principal and deputy principal told her they would look after her, but Tichenor-Cox said she didn’t think anything had been done.
“Even though my baby is gone, I will make sure to fill in for Izzy,” Tichenor-Cox tearfully told a news conference in November.
“I’ll never see her again… I’ll never see him again… she was 10 years old. I was only 10 years old,” he added, before burying his face in a table.
Less than two months before Izzy’s death, the Justice Department released a report after reviewing more than 200 complaints of racial harassment and other discrimination and conducting five visits to the district, during which it spoke with staff and students.
Who were the Victims?
The report states: “Black students reported strikingly similar experiences across the district: White students and other non-Black students routinely called Black students the n-word and other racial epithets, called them monkeys or monkeys and said their fur was dirty or looking like feces.”
Classmates taunted black students by making monkey noises, touching and pulling their hair without permission, repeatedly referencing slavery and lynching, and telling black students to “pick cotton” and “you are my slave.”
“Slave-related bullying increased as schools taught the subject, which some black students said was not taught in a respectful or considerate manner.”
“White and other non-black students demanded that black students give them an ‘N-word passport,’ which the non-black students said gave them permission to use the n-word with impunity, even with and around black students.”
Darlene McDonald, a local activist whose two black sons attended the district school, said her eldest son “struggles with being the butt of black jokes,” according to the Salt Lake Tribune.
Tomoya Averett, 22, said she was the victim of “relentless” bullying.
She says white students called her the N-word and said, “God hates black people; therefore his skin is dark “when he was 16 years old”.
Some Quick Facts About Izzy Tichenor
- A new report has revealed that the Utah school district failed to protect Izzy Tichenor from the bullies who drove the 10-year-old to suicide in November 2021.
- The young woman was so upset by the students’ and teacher’s comments about how Febreze smelled on her clothes.
- Staff at Foxboro Elementary School in Farmington, Utah, were not even aware of their district’s formal definition of bullying.
- The report said it was impossible to tell if the bullying was racist, but Izzy’s mother, Brittany, has previously insisted it was.
- A separate Justice Department report found that the Davis School District, which includes Foxboro, ignored complaints of racism against black and Asian students.
- If you or someone you know needs confidential assistance, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1800-273-8255.
