The mother of a 10-year-old South Carolina girl who died two days after a school fight says that she complained to school officials about her daughter being bullied multiple times before the brawl.
Wright, a 5th grader at Hills Elementary School, died on March 27 at the Medical University of South Carolina.
Wright's mother, Ashley Wright, said that she told school officials that her daughter was being bullied but that nothing was done in response.
"That's what really breaks me down and makes me question to myself why nothing was never done up until now with this happening."
Wright said that she thought the bullying issue was being handled.
"I'm thinking they got it handled, and they failed me," she said.
Wright said that the other student involved in the fight, who has not been publicly identified, bullied her girl for at least a year. She said her mother, Raniya's grandmother, saw Raniya before she went to school on the fateful day and that the girl didn't want to go.
"My momma said that she did not want to go to school. She told me later on that day, when I was on lunch before the school called, that she didn't want to go to school," Wright recalled. "And the last couple of weeks she's been feeling like that. When I say, 'You got a half a day tomorrow.' She'll be like, 'Yes, can I just stay home?' She did not want to go to school these last couple of weeks. ... I felt like the situation at school was getting worse."
Raniya kept complaining about the girl, saying she was picking on her every day, including making fun of her nose and hair.
State Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, a Democrat, claimed that Raniya received no blows in the fight, describing what happened as a brief shoving match.
Raniya held her head after the shoves and later threw up and lost consciousness, the lawmaker said.
“I think it’s a case of 10-year-olds acting like 10-year-olds,” she said, saying in her opinion it was not a bullying issue but a class size issue.
Bright Matthews said that she spoke with the families of both girls as well as others but Wright's father and his attorneys said that he's had little to no contact with any officials regarding what happened.
Van Dyke added that he wants justice for his daughter, saying, “I wanted to find out what happened, how it happened, and who was involved.”