11-year-old Jocelynn Rojo Carranza died by suicide due to the frequent bullying and threats of deportation that the young girl was enduring at school.
Jocelynn was being bullied by her classmate, who tormented the little girl for her family’s immigration status, eventually concluding on a tragic action in which the child took her own life.
Jocelynn’s mother, Marbella Carranza, arrived home on the morning of February 3 only to encounter her unresponsive daughter. “Unfortunately, there was nothing that could be done. All week I’ve been waiting for a miracle – waiting for my daughter to get better,” Marbella Carranza expressed.
The aggravated mother intends to have some clarification for her daughter’s tragic passing.
“I never knew anything about that [bullying] (…) My daughter never showed changes. I mean, there was never anything that gave me a sign that she was suffering from bullying.”
The minor repeatedly sought help at school; nonetheless, her mother was never alerted. Carranza said she only learned about her daughter being a victim of school bullying after her passing and thanks to an investigator, who learned important evidence for the investigation.
“They were going to call immigration so they could take her parents away and she would be left alone,” the mother said, who also fears justice will not be served, especially since she believes the Gainesville Independent School District will be closing the investigation soon.
After Jocelynn’s death, the Gainesville ISD stated that they take any indication of bullying inside their schools seriously, claiming they have a zero tolerance policy for bullying, also claiming that their schools have several policies for battling school bullying and solving problems of this source. However, these indications were disproved along with the tragic event.
“Whenever we receive a report of bullying, we respond swiftly to ensure all students are safe physically and emotionally. While we cannot release any information about specific students or incidents, our schools have several policies in place to combat bullying and resolve conflicts,” Gainesville ISD also clarified to CNN.
Jocelynn Rojo Carranza’s death occurred during an increasing high tension moment for the immigrant Latino community. Donald Trump’s administration has made efforts to intensify retaliatory measures against the immigrants, and these efforts are not leaving the children at ease, as it is clearly represented in the latest policies that ended any legal services to the unaccompanied immigrant children.
Needless to say, these proposed actions are largely harmful towards the Hispanic community, creating threat conditions to the families’ environment in which even the children are at risk of being extremely aggravated, as it has already occurred to Jocelynn.
