SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A Utah school district has agreed to pay $2 million to the family of a Black, autistic 10-year-old girl who killed herself after being harassed by her classmates.
The family of Isabella “Izzy” Tichenor blamed her death in 2021 on an inadequate response by school officials to reports that the girl was being bullied over her race and disabilities. The Davis School District announced the settlement on Tuesday.
The lawsuit said that Izzy, the only Black student in her class, was bullied by students at North Salt Lake’s Foxboro Elementary School by classmates who called her the N-word, told her she stank and made fun of her for being autistic. The family said they had reported the bullying to teachers and administrators, who hadn’t stopped the harrasment.
Tichenor’s death came weeks after the district, which educates 73,000 kids north of Salt Lake City and has a student body that is less than 1% Black, was reprimanded by the U.S. Department of Justice for failing to address widespread racial discrimination. It sparked widespread outrage, including from the Utah Jazz, whose then-star shooting guard Donovan Mitchell spoke out about how school officials should’ve done more to stop the racist bullying.