A 12-year-old girl from Las Vegas reportedly took her own life after enduring relentless bullying at Duane D. Keller Middle School.
Flora Martinez’s family has asserted that their request to transfer her to another school was denied by the school.
Tragically, Flora died by suicide on May 7.
“Look how hard it was on my daughter. My daughter was literally bullied to death,” her mother, Alice Martinez, told 8 News Now.
Alice, along with Flora’s father Joshua Parker, accused the Clark County School District of failing to protect their daughter. They stated that Flora’s classmates continued to bully her even after they reported it to the school’s assistant principal.
According to Alice, the bullying began at the beginning of the 2023-24 academic year. She submitted paperwork to transfer her daughter out of middle school, but the CCSD allegedly denied the request on October 6, 2023.
“At that point, I already had her out of school for two weeks because of all the incidents. Just that short amount of time into the school year,” Alice said.
The bullying started getting worse as the little girl returned to the classroom. “This wasn’t just one incident that happened, and you know, she decided to take her life. This was months and months and months of bullying that built up, and finally, she just couldn’t take it no more,” said.
Flora seems to have been targeted without any provocation. Her former classmate Rico said she was “so nice to everybody.”
“I’m so sad, because like I felt like it’s my fault because I should have really done something. I should’ve pushed everybody out of the way. Got to her,” Rico said.
The family alleged that Flora endured the bullying right until the moment she died by suicide in her bedroom.
“I feel like the school had a duty to keep her safe, while she was in their care and they just failed miserably,” Alice said. “Everybody that had a hand in that request to transfer her failed her … If you’re a parent and you’re not outraged by this, you’re part of the problem too.”
