Her 11-year-old daughter died by suicide. Now this South Jersey mother is fighting to toughen anti-bullying laws in schools.

On that fateful Feb. 6 morning, Felicia LoAlbo-Melendez chatted over breakfast with her mother about an upcoming Disney play and then headed off to F.W. Holbein Middle School in Mount Holly.

A few hours later, Felicia, 11, was found unresponsive at the school and was rushed to the hospital. She died two days later in her mother’s arms. Her death was ruled a suicide, and authorities said foul play was not suspected.

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Her mother, Elaina LoAlbo, believes her only daughter died after years of being harassed and bullied by classmates, and filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the South Jersey school system earlier this month for failing to protect her daughter. The sixth grader repeatedly asked school officials for help, she said.

“It’s really hard,” LoAlbo, 41, said in an interview. “It shouldn’t have happened to her.”

LoAlbo, who also has two sons, said she is coping with her grief by remembering her daughter as her “happy hope” and hearing from other parents who have lost a child. She’s also mourning her husband, Alex Melendez, a highly decorated NJ Transit police detective, who died from pancreatic cancer two weeks before their daughter’s death.

Despite the bullying incidents at school, Felicia seemed like she was looking forward to school on the last day her mother saw her alive. She had been tapped to play the role of Te Fiti, a goddess in Disney’s Moana, an epic adventure about a spirited teen who sets sail on a daring mission to prove herself.

“She was so excited,” her mother said.

Named after her paternal grandmother, Felicia was a stickler for having her name pronounced correctly. Fey-lee-see-uh was her own person, her mother said. She loved rainbows and sparkles, and was a quirky dresser. A voracious reader, she skipped a grade, which could have made the girl vulnerable to bullying because she was smaller and younger than her classmates, she said.

“She was just a bright light,” her mother said.

A precocious child who enjoyed reading the New York Times, Felicia loved theater, especially singing and acting, her mother said. It was not unusual for the girl to belt out a song in a grocery store aisle. She was involved with the school band, and chorus, and played the saxophone.

As a member of the Random Acts of Kindness Club, Felicia was an advocate for anti-bullying. She spoke up not only for herself but for others, too, her mother said. She wanted to start a “trauma club” for students who were being harassed — something her mother now plans to do in her memory.

The school on Levis Drive, which enrolls fifth to eighth graders, was designated for the 2022-2023 school year as “No place for hate,” according to its website. It also received a certificate in recognition of its “commitment to creating a culture of kindness.”

Mount Holly school superintendent Robert Mungo has not responded to telephone and email messages seeking comment. The lawsuit names Mungo, the principal, counselors, and teachers, accusing them of failing to protect the girl.

According to the lawsuit, Felicia suffered “an extended, persistent period of bullying during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school year.” She wrote letters and emails to school officials, and so did her parents. In a chilling voicemail found by her mother after her death, Felicia wanted others to be nice. The message was recorded in 2021.

“Never, never, never be bad. Never give up on your friends. Never, ever ... be a bully.”

LoAlbo said some critics say she should have done more to protect her daughter or transferred her to a private school. LoAlbo said she sought counseling for Felicia to help her cope with the stress. She also got her involved in Krav Maga, a self-defense training similar to karate.

“We did our part,” she said. “But we sent her to school. They could have done something.”

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In the weeks before her death, Felicia was taunted by students to “unlive yourself,” the lawsuit said. In class, she was called ugly, was pranked, and was the target of ethnic slurs and other offensive names, the lawsuit said.

LoAlbo said she hears almost daily from other parents whose children have been bullied at Holbein and other schools. She believes bullying incidents are underreported at Holbein and not appropriately investigated. She testified at a state Board of Education hearing this month and called for an independent audit of Harassment, Intimidation and Bullying reports schools self-report to the state.

According to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the second-leading cause of death for youths and young adults between 10 and 24. The rates are higher for children of color, and girls and young women are especially at risk.

“The schools need to change the culture,” said Diane Sammons, a lawyer with Nagel Rice in Roseland who filed the lawsuit. “How many other children are suffering?”

Sammons said New Jersey could make its anti-bullying laws, already among the toughest in the country, even better by implementing an anonymous bullying reporting system that allows students to use their cell phones, easing immunity statutes that make it difficult for parents to sue districts, and imposing criminal penalties for the parents of children who bully their peers.

While the case makes its way through the legal system, LoAlbo has focused on setting up a foundation to honor her daughter called Felicia’s Footprints to assist bullied and marginalized youth. The independent hospitality and security contractor already has had speaking engagements.

“I want them to wake up and do better for the next kid,” she said.

When the stress gets to her, LoAlbo finds solace in camping and riding her bicycle.

“It gets to be so emotionally heavy. I have to live this 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” she said.