A 13-year-old Ohio girl of Chinese descent was continually assaulted,
bullied and harassed online by white students before she killed herself, a
new lawsuit claims.
The demographics of the Fairfield City Schools show a racial breakdown of 86
.7% white, 9% black, and 1.6% Asian. Clearly, students of color can be made
to feel isolated and vulnerable.
The lawsuit alleges Emilie was bullied for the better part of three school
years because of her association with a group of white students who wore
camouflage and were considered “country” by other students. Emilie, of
Chinese descent, was adopted when she was nine months old.
“Chinese people don’t wear camo,” one student told her.
On a separate occasion, a group of students pushed her into a locker, saying
, “Asians shouldn’t wear camo and boots."
Before starting seventh grade, Emilie told her parents she was scared to go
back to school because her class schedule grouped her with several students
who picked on her in previous years.
In sixth grade, one of those students allegedly followed Emilie into the
bathroom, handed her a razor and told her to "end her life."
Before she did, she told her parents she wanted to dye her hair as an
attempt to conceal her ethnicity.
“Why can’t I be white like you and mom?” she asked her father.
The horrific picture painted in the wrongful death lawsuit, filed one year
after Emilie’s death, outline allegations that aren’t new. Her family and
other prominent figures in the Asian-American community have publicly
criticized district officials for a lack of transparency and a lack of
tangible action regarding bullying.