An 11-year-old who died by suicide was relentlessly bullied at her South Jersey school, a lawsuit says

The family of an 11-year-old South Jersey girl who died by suicide has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit alleging that she repeatedly asked for protection from bullying by classmates, but that school officials did nothing to stop it.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Superior Court in Burlington County, alleges that Felicia LoAlbo-Melendez died in February after years of being harassed and bullied about her physical appearance, Latina roots, and “perceived sexual orientation” by her peers at the F.W. Holbein School for grades five through eight in Mount Holly, where she was a sixth grader.

The girl sent numerous emails to school officials “regarding ongoing and systemic bullying” that she was suffering, the lawsuit alleges. She was harassed, taunted, called derogatory names, and pushed down a flight of stairs, the lawsuit said.

“She would come home crying on a regular basis,” her mother, Elaina LoAlbo, said at a news conference Thursday with her lawyers. “It just became intolerable there.”

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

Read the full complaint here.

The girl was found unresponsive on Feb. 6 at the school on Levis Drive. Two days later, “she succumbed to her injuries cradled in the arms of her mother,” the lawsuit said. A medical examiner ruled her death a suicide. The county prosecutor’s office said no foul play was involved.

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According to the lawsuit, the sixth grader had suffered “an extended, persistent period of bullying that occurred during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school year.” She wrote letters and emails to school officials and had proposed starting a “trauma club” for herself and other students who were being harassed.

“It just got worse and worse as the school year went on. They failed to do anything,” said Diane Sammons, a lawyer with Nagel Rice in Roseland. “We need to stop this. Our children are dying.”

Sammons’ firm reached a $9.1 million settlement in July with the Rockaway Township School District in Morris County involving a similar case that made national headlines in 2017: A 12-year-old girl was relentlessly cyberbullied and died by suicide. It was the largest settlement of a bullying case in New Jersey history.

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

In an email included in the lawsuit, Felicia wrote: “I was watching TV and thinking about the things in my life that happened to me and I got a great idea. Instead of drama club, it would be a trauma club. ... I would help and provide as much as I can. I for one have heard from my friends and others about things that have happened to them, and I think this would be a fantastic thing.”

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Described as a compassionate and bright student who skipped a grade, Felicia was very active in extracurricular activities at school, including the Gender and Sexuality Alliance club, chorus, and drama, according to the lawsuit. As a member of the Random Acts of Kindness Club, she was an advocate for antibullying.

Felicia and her parents filed numerous complaints with the district about bullying, according to the lawsuit. Her father, Alex Melendez, a NJ Transit police detective, died from cancer two weeks before his daughter’s death. School officials promised to rearrange Felicia’s class schedule to minimize contact with alleged bullies but never did so, the lawsuit said.

In the weeks before her death, Felicia was taunted by students to “unlive yourself,” the lawsuit said. In class, she was called ugly, and was the target of ethnic slurs and other offensive names, the lawsuit said. A classmate poured water in her empty chair and when she unknowingly sat down, yelled, “Look who pissed in her chair,” drawing laughter from the class, the lawsuit said.

The chair episode was witnessed by the teacher, but no disciplinary action was taken, the lawsuit said. In another episode, a student put gum in Felicia’s hair and then cut out a clump of her hair, the lawsuit said. The girl was also subjected to cyberbullying, the lawsuit said.

New Jersey has strong antibullying laws for schools, but the district failed to enforce them, her lawyer said. Gov. Phil Murphy signed a law in 2022 strengthening the state’s law. The family believes bullying incidents are underreported at Holbein and not investigated properly, Sammons said.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages. Melendez wants schools to provide more accountability for how bullying is handled. She said she gets calls weekly from Holbein parents whose children are being bullied.