A high school sophomore took her own life after being relentlessly harassed by her classmates at school.
Stephenie ‘Stevie’ English died on September 22 at just 16 years old, leaving behind a loving family who only found out about the bullying after her death.
An adult friend collecting letters from Stevie’s classmates made the discovery, recalling Wednesday how “90 percent of the letters” had been apologies for repeated instances of bullying.
“I’m so sorry for the way you were treated,” some said, according to Amber Murphy; others, “You didn’t deserve to be treated this way.”
Stevie’s friends confirmed several instances of bullying over the girl’s weight and glasses, while D’Iberville High staff maintains they received no such reports. One said a student had pushed Stevie down the stairs.
Stephenie ‘Stevie’ English died on September 22 at just 16 years old, leaving behind a loving family who only found out about the bullying after her death.
Her classmates are seen paying tribute to the young girl from Mississippi, after others engaged in a campaign of bullying that culminated in Stevie taking her own life.
“He just looked at her, laughed and walked away,” said 14-year-old Abby Powers. The Herald of the Sunexposing the alleged incident which she claims occurred last August.
She added that Stevie, one of her closest friends, refused to report what happened because she didn’t believe anything would be done.
The high school student added that Stevie was left with bruises on her back after the attack, one of several incidents that she and others now say led to the girl’s suicide.
“When I started getting to know her, I realized that she was being harassed,” the girl who had met Stevie four years ago while playing softball continued to reveal.
“I know a lot of people who told him to kill himself.”
He gave the interview alongside his mother, Kiersten Ellis, who stated that she had even accompanied Stevie to the school office to report the bullying.
He did it several times, apparently without success.
Kiersten went on to recall how the boys who picked on Stevie called her “fat” and “four eyes,” and how the girl at one point approached her to tell her she was tired of the “nagging.”
An adult collecting letters from Stevie’s classmates made the discovery, recalling Wednesday how “90 percent of the letters” apologized for repeated instances of bullying.
Stevie’s friends confirmed several instances of bullying over the girl’s weight and glasses, while D’Iberville High staff maintains they received no such reports.
Abby described how Stevie regularly went to the bathroom for long periods before emerging with bloodshot eyes.
“In ROTC (Reserve Officers’ Training Corps) he would put his head on his desk and cry,” the girl recalled, referring to the youth leadership training and development program for military hopefuls available at the school.
Things would only get worse from there, others revealed, with friends later describing a particularly harrowing case that occurred the week before Stevie’s death.
It happened outside the school, near the parking lot, several said, where Stevie and her boyfriend were parked in their truck.
They had been having an intimate moment, those familiar with what happened admitted, before adding how, unbeknownst to the couple, at least one child was recording them from the parking lot.
A subsequent video circulated throughout the school, leaving Stevie beside himself, said friends who spoke to the Herald.
She and the boy were suspended for the rest of the week, prompting her father, Jason Walker English, to get involved.
The doting father also spoke to the newspaper and recalled how at the end of the week he had taken her to speak to his counsellor, before staying by her side on Friday and Saturday.
Saturday night was the last time he spoke to her, Jason said, remembering how she wished him “good night” before going to bed.
The girl’s grandmother detailed how one of those who had harassed Stevie came to her funeral and recalled how he reached out to her and eventually accepted her apology.
The next morning, she was found dead, apparently from suicide.
“Stevie was a beautiful person who made a horrible decision, a permanent decision,” his father said in a statement, adding that he was not ready to be interviewed.
‘Before you idolize some hashtag, social media trend or go out and bully someone, remember that there is some other boy or girl who might see it, search for it or just stumble across it and think suicide is the right answer. No.
“There is no pain, tragedy or problem that Jesus cannot solve,” he concluded.
His parents, however, spoke to the newspaper to offer even more information about the campaign of intimidation they blame for Stevie’s death.
“I have no doubt that Stevie did what he did because he couldn’t go back to school and face that,” said Ginny English, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment from DailyMail.com on Wednesday afternoon.
She detailed how one of the girls who had harassed Stevie attended his funeral in Long Beach and recalled how she had learned the girl’s identity from several of Stevie’s friends.
According to them, the girl had once told Stevie that she should commit suicide, prompting Ginny to approach her at the solemn ceremony.
The unnamed young man responded by bursting into tears, prompting Ginny to give him a hug, he recalled.
She told the girl, “We can forgive you, but we’ll do better,” before her husband, Steve English, stepped in to discuss the Harrison County sheriff’s subsequent investigation that found no harassment.
An investigator handling the case told him that he had interviewed about “50 or 60 children” and found no evidence of wrongdoing.
Steve even recalled seeing the video taken of Stevie and her boyfriend, which he said was filmed from so far away that the only way he could recognize her was because of her curly hair.
A close friend who met Stevie four years ago while playing softball said the harassment had gone on for years, while another called out “all” the other students from the intense campaign.
Meanwhile, his wife, speaking to the Herald two weeks after Stevie’s death, claimed that bullying continues to occur even “in death.”
He claimed that students were still saying mean things about Stevie and making fun of his death with Abby while they were on the bus.
“They’re calling her a whore,” she said, and Abby added that she reported the incidents to an assistant principal, who let the children responsible off the hook with a warning.
The girl claimed that the bullying continues and that the group responsible even made up a rude name for the children who had been friends of the deceased: The Goon Squad.
“Every single one of them,” Murphy said of the students at the school in Biloxi. “They knew she was being bullied.”
“Stevie continues to be bullied until her death,” Ginny added.
Abby’s mother, Holly Powers, told the newspaper: “What makes me angry is that the school says they have zero tolerance for bullies, but they don’t do anything about it.”
Bullying is prohibited under Mississippi law. Staff are expected to report cases to superiors, who have policies in place to address them.
The school, which is part of the Harrison County School District, maintained during the now-ended investigation that it received no reports that it had been bullied.
The version was corroborated by local police.
The district reportedly declined to discuss the issue when contacted by the Herald.