# Mentor, Ohio Mother Claims Bullying Played A Role In Her 13-year-old Daughter’s Suicide Last Month



## Leeda.the.Paladin (May 19, 2019)

*Mentor, Ohio mother claims bullying played a role in her 13-year-old daughter’s suicide last month*

*Mentor, Ohio mother claims bullying played a role in her 13-year-old daughter’s suicide last month





By Erin Logan | May 16, 2019 at 9:48 PM CDT - Updated May 17 at 3:01 PM 
CLEVELAND, Ohio (WOIO) - A Mentor mother is trying to make sense of a personal tragedy.

Her 13-year-old daughter, Autumn Issa, ended her own life just a few weeks ago.

Brittany Lawrence spoke exclusively with 19 News.

Visibly devastated, Lawrence told Erin Logan, “It’s hard. Now, I feel helpless.”

The minute she got that gut-wrenching call at work from police, her world turned upside down. Her beautiful daughter, Autumn, was gone. “She did have some depression at her age. She suffered a lot of loss,” Lawrence said.

Lawrence and her younger daughter, Makayla, said going to school often made Autumn feel worthless.

The insults had been going on for years for the pageant queen, cheerleader, and runner, who had dreamed of being a veterinarian.

“The kids told me there was this popular girl and Autumn came in and became the new popular girl and they would just make fun of her and call her Barbie because her hair was too blonde and eyes too blue and she was too skinny.”

Makayla asked, “What was your reason? Because most people don’t have a reason. They just do it out of jealousy.”

Lawrence pointed out one of the last photos of Autumn. She had very dark hair after begging her mom to dye it that color.

She isn’t entirely pointing the finger at school leaders, but Lawrence said she’s unsure if her concerns were ever really considered. “I came in at the very beginning telling you what I didn’t want to happen and now I can’t do anything. She’s gone,” said Lawrence.

The pain got worse for the grieving mom with mean social media posts after the tragedy, “Talking about how they were gonna come and flip her casket,” Lawrence told 19 News.

“Kids were saying that?” Lawrence said. “Yes, so we had to have officers stand by the casket because we were afraid that was gonna happen to her. People are just mean. I don’t get it.”

Lawrence said she reported it to the school and they said, “We’ll look into it."

Now, Lawrence is making it her mission for Autumn, to find a way to hold bullies accountable.

“I promised her I won’t stop,” Lawrence said.

In the meantime, she’s asking parents to teach their kids how to be kind. “It starts at home. I feel your kids are an example of who you are,” said Lawrence.

19 News reached out to Mentor Schools, they issued a statement saying, “We are heartbroken over the loss of Autumn. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this most difficult time. Our students and our community are grieving and many are searching for answers, as it is so hard to understand why a life was lost so young. We know that everyone will process grief differently, we also know it is extremely important to have supports in place and resources available for our students and their families so we can continue to work together to help our students cope with their feelings.’

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## Leeda.the.Paladin (May 19, 2019)

They had to have an officer at the funeral because of threats to flip the casket over. These kids are evil...


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## Everything Zen (May 19, 2019)

They need to start charging the kids and the parents in these cases. Also the schools need to be able to be sued if they are found negligent as well. This epidemic has got to stop.


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## Shula (May 21, 2019)

I didn't even see this thread before the other one with the black mom telling the kids off. This is heartbreakingly tragic. Some of these kids are demon seeds. How are you still being this evil and the girl is gone? Kindness is mocked and people are merciless these days. And then they teach it to their rotten children and the cycle continues. Zero sympathy for bullies because they are responsible for the ills of society.


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## okange76 (May 21, 2019)

My Parents lived in Mentor for a year before moving to Boston.   They are awful over there.  My Dad and little brother at the time were stopped on the street and someone  touched their hair and wiped their skin to see if the color came off.  They had never seen black people before IRL only on TV.  

I know a black guy who went for a 5th grade bday party when he was 11.  He drank the punch, passed out and woke up to one of the white girls giving him a BJ.  He said it set him off on a spiral of promiscuity till the age of 19.  He had no idea of how to control his emotions. All he knew was that it felt good.  This happened about 15 yrs ago.   This is why we need to keep an eye on little black boys as well.


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## Shula (May 22, 2019)

okange76 said:


> My Parents lived in Mentor for a year before moving to Boston.   They are awful over there.  My Dad and little brother at the time were stopped on the street and someone  touched their hair and wiped their skin to see if the color came off.  They had never seen black people before IRL only on TV.
> 
> I know a black guy who went for a 5th grade bday party when he was 11.  He drank the punch, passed out and woke up to one of the white girls giving him a BJ.  He said it set him off on a spiral of promiscuity till the age of 19.  He had no idea of how to control his emotions. All he knew was that it felt good.  This happened about 15 yrs ago.   This is why we need to keep an eye on little black boys as well.




This whole post is stomach churning and I agree with you on our black boys too. Smh


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## Everything Zen (May 22, 2019)

^^^Some of these places just need to be Napalmed SMH


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## SpiritJunkie (May 26, 2019)

Wow!


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## KidneyBean86 (May 26, 2019)

I don't live too far from Mentor and the people there are awful. I try to avoid that place at all costs if I can.


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## Everything Zen (May 26, 2019)

For some reason- the name Mentor didn’t sound right in the first place...


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## Kanky (May 26, 2019)

I give parents who allow their children to be bullied into suicide the side eye. If your child is being bullied constantly for years at a time then make changes. Even if the child doesn’t kill herself, being treated that way isn’t emotionally healthy.


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## Theresamonet (May 26, 2019)

Kanky said:


> I give parents who allow their children to be bullied into suicide the side eye. If your child is being bullied constantly for years at a time then make changes. Even if the child doesn’t kill herself, being treated that way isn’t emotionally healthy.



I agree. 

And I think urging other parents to teach their kids to be kind is futile. There is always going to be terrible people in the world. These parents don’t seem to be doing enough to build up there kids self esteem and coping skills. All I ever hear is that they went up to the school a few times to complain. That’s not enough.


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