Summary

Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, an 11-year-old girl from Gainesville, Texas, died by suicide after enduring months of bullying over her family’s immigration status.

Classmates allegedly mocked her and threatened to report her family to ICE. The school was aware of the bullying but failed to notify Carranza’s family.

Her mother, Marbella Carranza, only learned of the harassment after her daughter’s death and is now working with investigators and the school to understand what happened and why she was not notified.

  • Gammelfisch@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    RIP Jocelynn. The Hispanics should move out of Texas and watch the shithole collapse.

    The MAGAts are sub-human shit.

    • Echolynx@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      Unfortunately, Texas does a great job of brainwashing a lot of people with Texan pride. Most of them are probably of the “Texas is the best” mindset.

    • patacon_pisao@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      The shitty MAGAts and their elected officials should be thrown out of TX. A lot of Mexican-Americans around there have been in the state for generations, some families live across each other on either side of the border. I get the sentiment, but it’s these racist assholes that need to be driven out.

    • Snowclone@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      They’re celebrating. This is what they want. They want all Hispanic people gone. They never cared about immigration or legal status, they hate Hispanics and they want them all gone, and children are the Hispanics they hate the most. I don’t know if you’ve ever really listened to their rhetoric, but ‘‘I drove by a school and all the kids were Mexicans’’ is a BIG taking point on the right and has been for decades. They want out kids gone by any means.

      • Phoenicianpirate@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        I never understood them. The American Southwest always had a very large hispanic population… I mean they were there before settlers from the US came along, even racist cartoons from the 1890s and 1900s showed hispanic looking people as being part of the culture there.

      • inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I know, just around me that they can look at their black ass, hateful souls, “read” the new testament, and mental gymnastic themselves into believing they good, upstanding Christians.

    • rabber@lemmy.ca
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      2 days ago

      Unfortunately they won’t because it undeniably doesn’t exist and they know it too

  • kava@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    I grew up illegal in the US. I was brought on a travel visa at the age of 5 and it wasn’t until my mid 20s that I became a citizen.

    I vividly remember being in elementary school, around her age, in music class where we were learning the national anthem. The entire class would stand up and we should sing “I’m proud to be an American” and I remember silently crying as I stood up and sang the song.

    I cried because I understood even at that age that I was not an American. I was part of everything while simultaneously always being detached from everything. Never fitting in, but pretending to. I think long-term it created a strange sense of detachment from society. This shit fucks you up and it’s heavy stuff for a child to process. It wasn’t until my adulthood that I really started to understand and internalize a positive narrative from my upbringing. An 11 year old child does not have the capacity to process this.

    And I’m in my 30s now- I grew up illegal before social media and before this xenophobic outburst started circa 2016. I’d imagine it’s so much worse today.

    I feel for this little girl. I feel for all the children in the country who’s only crime was existing. Obama, while famously being the deporter-in-chief (both Obama terms aw more deported than Trump’s first term), at least did offer DACA as an executive order for these children.

    Really, I think you can tell the state of a society by how they treat the vulnerable. And the US is getting increasingly brutal and cruel. We’re in for a wild fascist ride, comrades. It’s only just begun.

    • Malfeasant@lemm.ee
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      22 hours ago

      Never fitting in, but pretending to

      Not trying to deny your experience or anything like that, but a lot of people feel that way, especially around that age, are you sure it was because of your lack of citizenship? I know I have always felt like that, and I was born in Boston, Mayflower descendant too…

      Not the point, I know.

      • kava@lemmy.world
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        22 hours ago

        you’re correct it’s not a unique experience to feel isolated from the rest of your peers. i feel like it’s an experience that might actually be increasing. i think social media ironically adds to this in the youth. many biracial people also experience something like this (ie, too white for the blacks, too black for the whites)

        when i got here initially i moved to a place where nobody spoke my native language. so when i went to school, i would get put in a class all by myself with a nice lady who would hold flash cards with pictures on them. she would show me a card, it would say something like “cat” or “ball” and then she would repeat them over and over.

        so the first year or so of primary school I was alone in a room because I didn’t speak english yet. really what eventually taught me english was cable TV

        another element in the experience is being afraid of authority. the police were dangerous because at any moment if they caught us the family could get separated and we could get deported. one time my parents were cleaning an office late at night (they worked in cleaning when they first arrived in US) and they brought me with.

        i didn’t understand what a fire alarm was so i pulled it. my parents, scared that the authorities would arrive and see a young child, took me and put me in the backseat of the car where people’s feet usually go and they put a blanket on me. they told me to be very quiet and not make a sound otherwise we could all be deported. so i hid in that car for an hour or so until the emergency services left


        i share these things not to say i had a hard life or anything like that. I think I had a good upbringing. and I understand many Americans have had much worse experiences and also feel alienated as well.

        But I share these things just because the story in the OP touched me because I was that 11 year old child once. It’s a life and a set of experiences a lot of Americans don’t really think about very much. Or at least historically has been more or less ignored.

        Nowadays illegals have attention but unfortunately an overwhelmingly peaceful people become “rapists and murderers”. if you look up statistics, illegals are 2-4x less likely to commit crime than native born americans (if you get any charge at all, you can get deported… even if you get acquitted or the charges dropped!). so naturally they tend to be more careful breaking laws

      • kava@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        Thank you. I feel like one these days. Especially after the naturalization ceremony. This is a country of immigrants and I’m part of it. I’m not ashamed of it anymore. I was when I was younger.

    • bitwolf@sh.itjust.works
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      2 days ago

      Wanting to reaffirm that no matter what anyone says you’re just as valued and important as anyone else in this country.

      I hope that one day our society and law will accurately reflect reality.

      Wishing the same for my family and friends who bear the same burdens. It’s very depressing our world is still caught up in racial problems and not important problems like food and shelter.

      • kava@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        thank you, i appreciate the kind words. like i said, after processing and coming to terms with my upbringing, I see it as a positive these days. I got a unique outlook on life that most people don’t have the privilege to see.

        I know things about this country Americans don’t have any clue about. By being sort of “in between” cultures, it lets you zoom out more easily. the world which was once small gets bigger.

        It’s very depressing our world is still caught up in racial problems and not important problems like food and shelter.

        I think people are scared. Americans are insecure about their future. Financially, emotionally, and societally.

        I think we have to go through this painful phase but we will come out the other side with a new 21st century ideology. Once that fixes the contradictions of the 20th century one we still have.

    • NotLemming@lemm.ee
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      At least you had a little defense from the indoctrination… You do understand that’s what it was? Countries don’t usually do that to kids.

      • kava@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        exactly this. later on as an adult I realized I had my own path and that path was always going to be different from the average. got me thinking differently, opened my mind, etc. I think also knowing 3 languages helps

        ideology gets impressed upon you at an early age already, especially here in the US.

  • boonhet@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    Unfortunately, that’s mission accomplished for team red, as that’s one fewer brown person growing up to take yer jerbs.

    This was not a suicide. The Trump regime and her classmates murdered her.

  • ChexMax@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    “It [the bullying] had gotten so aggressive, Carranza was meeting with a school counselor multiple times a week. Her family, however, was never notified.”

    What the literal fuck. The bullies said the bullying wouldn’t ease up until her family got deported. She was meeting with the school counselor several times a week and the school didn’t separate the bullies out? They didn’t notify the parents? I hope people are held personally liable. Your beloved little girl taking her own life is an unimaginable tragedy.

    The president is setting such a shameful example.

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      That’s what hit me the hardest too. This was completely preventable. The lack of response by the school is even more to blame than the bullies. The knot in my stomach wants to deck that school counselor.

      • ChexMax@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I agree that the adults here are the most responsible, but I hope those kids understand the gravity of what they’ve done.

        • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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          They may not at 11 years old, but this is the sort of thing that sticks with you. We can only hope this teaches them empathy rather than fueling more of this sociopathic behavior they’re likely emulating from their parents.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          I hope that the family of Jocelyn files numerous wrongful death lawsuits. The school failed. the bullies and their parents failed.

          It’s probably exactly zero consolation, but damn.

        • Mac@mander.xyz
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          3 days ago

          I hope it haunts them deep in their core for the rest of their lives and they live deep in moral debt in a futile attempt to break-even but simultaneously knowing they never will.

          • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            Whether this “breaks even” is a trolley problem, but it’s pretty easy to save lives. Just donate blood, mosquito nets, and vaccinations. It’s just paralyzing because you can’t save everyone.

      • Maeve@kbin.earth
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        2 days ago

        I was thinking she can’t even sue, without risking her own precarious safety.

        • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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          2 days ago

          Do we even know that her mother is here illegally? The article doesn’t mention and kids are assholes.

    • Seleni@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Even in my time the person who reported the bullying was treated worse than the bullies, and I’ve been out of school for a while. From what I’ve heard, it’s been getting much worse.

      • Saleh@feddit.org
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        3 days ago

        Seriously, the only way to defend yourself against bullying is to beat the crap out of the bully. And you will get repercussions for it, but the bully will think twice next time.

        • spooky2092
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          2 days ago

          10000%

          I was bullied for a long while in school, and much like this girl, went to school officials multiple times with no improvement (likely because one of the bullies had family in the school office). Nothing was done about the bullying until after I took matters into my own hands on multiple occasions.

          I still vividly remember when I broke the nose of the office shithead and got called into the principal’s office and threatened with a long out of school suspension, only to get 0 consequences after my grandfather came in and told to principal that he would do no such thing, or there would be a LONG discussion with the local school board (he was a well known person in the community) about how he did fuck all about abuse in his school after repeated notifications and only tried to punish the victim after they defended themselves

          I really enjoyed throwing that back in the bully’s face whenever he started his shit again, but looking back my grandfather basically cosigned the principal’s shitty behavior by not making that fucker pay for the shitty decisions he made.

    • Sanguine@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      Yet they pass these laws forcing teachers to rat on trans kids. Bet if this poor kid went by Carlos instead of Carranza they would have called right away!

      These motherfuckers.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Nobody will be held liable. It will be spun as a horrible tragedy and the school will move on.

    • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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      2 days ago

      I hope the school is sued into bankruptcy. And that all the bullies are suspended indefinately. Why didn’t the councilor call the parents?

    • ehpolitical@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      He’s setting a shameful example while feeling shameless, that’s the part that boggles my mind… like the one day he signed more of his ‘executive orders’, upsetting who knows how many people’s lives again, then hopped away afterwards to go golfing.

    • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      Yeah I’m kinda speechless. It doesn’t bear thinking about but I kinda wonder how aware she was of the consequences of what she was doing.

          • odd@feddit.org
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            2 days ago

            Okay hear me out. I give this one single try. If you do not take your time to think about this and double down on your ignorance I will not further engage.

            A little girl has been bullied to a point where she saw no other option than ending her own life. This is huge. It’s one of our must fundamental instincts.

            She was murdered. By her bullies, by the system, by everyone who enabled this to happen. She was murdered.

            Questioning whether she was fully aware of the consequences shifts the blame from the offenders to her. You imply an overreaction. You imply that the griev, drama, and negative emotions are in no relation to what she has been through. You question whether she has reached out for help enough. You question whether she tried.

            Rest assured: she did. https://iris.who.int/bitstream/handle/10665/341671/9789290228578-eng.pdf?sequence=1

            • techt@lemmy.world
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              In defense of nuance, I think this take is pretty unreasonable. I understand if you want to call people out for victim-blaming, but it’s very clear the commenter had no malicious intent by wondering about details about the tragedy. Why are we so eager for villains?

            • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              2 days ago

              I don’t really care whether you engage.

              It’s an absurdity to suggest that my comment shifts blame to an 11 year old victim.

              Sure ok maybe some asshole Alex Jones type might try to say she over reacted, and they might do that by undermining her agency.

              That doesn’t mean that someone wondering about what an 11 year old’s understanding of suicide might be, is doing anything other than grieving for our collective loss of innocence.

              It’s a perfectly reasonable thing to wonder in trying to process the death of someone so young.

        • null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 days ago

          Sorry I don’t really understand what’s so dumb about this question.

          If she actually intended suicide (which we don’t know), then to what extent did she understand the permanence of death in the context of the transience of feelings.

          • Goodmorningsunshine@lemmy.world
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            What you’re failing to understand is that you’re being an insufferable twat. Do you ask this about adults, too? There are very few people pushed to suicide who consider how transient feelings are, and that’s hardly the point here. You don’t have to face tragedy with obnoxiousness.

      • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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        I promise you, at 11 you know what death is. And it’s the ADULTS responsibility to protect you anyway. Why are you blaming the victim?

        • techt@lemmy.world
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          How can you promise that? I’ll admit I didn’t fully understand it then, I didn’t have any deaths in my close family until much later, so I never had to reconcile with it.

      • Resonosity@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        Oh you’re asking if she could relatively conceive of what life would be like without her in it, especially to her family and friends. If she had that level of mindfulness and could pre-meditate the consequences.

        I mean, she was 11. And even fully grown adults can barely know what the consequences of their actions will be, so I doubt this was ever something considered.

        It was probably a combination of short-term pain felt by herself and shame felt towards her family that led to the breaking point. Makes me dissociate just thinking about this story

        • Kalysta@lemm.ee
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          What the OP doesn’t realize is that if one is at the point of suicide, the loss to their family and friends doesn’t even cross their minds no matter the age.

          All they can think of is ending the pain. Doesn’t matter if you’re 11 or 30.

          The comment is stupid and clearly OP has never spoken with a suicidal person before. All they’re doing is victim blaming.

          • Reyali@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            Alternatively, they do think of their loved ones but through the lens of, “their lives would be better without me.”

            I can’t help but wonder if her bullies may have made this poor girl think she might be responsible if her parents faced repercussions from immigration policies. Regardless, it’s a tragedy that a life was lost so young and it’s inconceivable that the school took no action that may have prevented it.

  • DimlyLitFlutteringMoth
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    3 days ago

    The US regime believes in notifying parents, irrespective of the possible harm, if their child might be gay or trans but won’t bother with bullying so severe it leads to suicide. The US is fucked.

  • CallMeButtLove@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Rage. This is so incredibly tragic. I’m sitting here at 6:45 AM just crying when I should be getting ready for work. This is the type of world they’re trying to build.