(Photo: family photo/@ndelriego/X)
Editor’s note: This article first appeared at Common Dreams and you can see the original here.
An 11-year-old Texas girl took her own life following relentless bullying from classmates, some of whom threatened to call U.S. immigration authorities to deport her mother—who says she was never notified by school officials who knew of the abuse.
Jocelynn Rojo Carranza, a sixth-grader at Gainesville Intermediate School in Gainesville, located about 70 miles north of Dallas, died on February 8 in a Dallas hospital after spending five days in its intensive care unit, The Latin Timesreported Tuesday.
“I waited a whole week for a miracle that my daughter would be well, but unfortunately nothing could be done,” the girl’s mother, Marbella Carranza, toldUnivision in an interview in which she asked authorities to investigate the incident.
“She was a happy girl. My daughter will always live for me, and I will always love her,” Carranza added.
According to The Latin Times, classmates bullied Carranza over her family’s immigration status and threatened to call U.S. Immigration and Customst Enforcement. Newsweekreported that some of Carranza’s tormentors taunted her about being abandoned if her parents were deported.
School officials knew Carranza was being severely bullied and sent her for multiple weekly counseling sessions. However, the officials reportedly never notified the child’s mother, who says she only found out about the abuse after her daughter’s hospitalization.
Carranza’s death came amid increased anti-immigrant bigotry fueled by the return of Republican U.S. President Donald Trump to the White House. Trump—whose winning campaign strategy included falsely smearing migrants as pet-eating invaders and disease-spreading terrorists—quickly began his promised mass deportation drive.
This includes sending some deportees to the notorious Guantánamo Bay naval base and prison in Cuba, while some are being detained in a Panamanian jungle camp described as “primitive.”
On Monday, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem introduced a video warning people who are in the United States without authorization to “self-deport and stay out.” The ad—which is part of a campaign reportedly costing taxpayers $200 million—tells undocumented migrants to “leave now” or “we will hunt you down.”
Ruth Delgado, the digital media manager at the immigration reform group America’s Voice, called Carranza’s death a “heartbreaking story” in a Tuesday post on the Bluesky social media site.
“Her story is one of the many real human consequences of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric,” Delgado added.
Another Bluesky user said that “the cruelty and terror is the goal of this horrible regime.”
“Jocelynn did nothing wrong,” he added. “We failed her. I’m so sorry.”
One immigrant from Mexico wrote on social media that “this is what happens when you support and vote for a clown that blames immigrants for everything. The way in which the MAGA cult is poisoning the mind of this kids is outrageous. Jocelynn deserves justice!”
An Italian study of fifth grade students published in 2022 found a correlation between campaigning by the xenophobic right-wing Lega Nord party and school bullying.
“Our main result is that during electoral campaigns in places where Lega Nord is active there are large increases in bullying victimization within schools that is concentrated solely on children from immigrant backgrounds,” the study’s authors concluded. “These effects are absent for municipalities in which Lega Nord has little support, where no elections occurred, and for native children.”
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline—which offers 24/7, free, and confidential support—can be reached by calling or texting 988, or through chat at 988lifeline.org.
