Monday, November 14, 2011

Illinois: Ten-year-old was bullied before she killed herself, family says

Ashlynn Conner's mother said she had come home from school crying
BY NINA MANDELL
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Monday, November 14 2011, 4:01 PM



/CBS
Ashlynn Conner committed suicide after allegedly being bullied at school and in her neighborhood.
A 10-year-old Illinois girl who hanged herself in her closet last week had suffered repeated taunts from bullies mocking her for being overweight, her family said.

Ashlynn Conner’s heartbroken mother, Stacy, told local TV station WCIA-TV that Ashlynn had come home crying from school about two weeks ago, complaining that she was being bullied in her neighborhood as well as at school.

Then, last Thursday, the taunts got so bad that Ashlynn asked her mother to be home-schooled.

Her mother said no to the request. The next day, Ashlynn’s sister found her hanging in the closet from a scarf fashioned into a noose, the TV station reported.

“I thought my kids are strong kids, and that my words for them for guidance and advice [were\] going to have more weight than what these kids could be saying,” Stacy Conner told WCIA-TV on Sunday.

The young girl’s ordeal became a tragedy despite the existence of an anti-bullying law in Illinois. The state first passed an anti-bullying law in 2001 and has continuously strengthened it over the past decade.

But the law was not able to protect Ashlynn from the pain that led her to take her life.

“I don't know what it's going to take to stop it, but no child should ever have to feel like they have to kill themselves to stop that kind of pain,” her mother said.

nmandell@nydailynews.com

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