DRAPER, Utah (AP) - When her 10-year-old daughter tried spraying air freshener on herself before school one morning, Brittany Tichenor-Cox suspected something was wrong with the sweet little girl whose beaming smile had gone dormant after she started the fifth grade.
She coaxed out of Isabella "Izzy" Tichenor a boy in her class told her she stank after their teacher instructed the class they needed to shower. It was the latest in a series of bullying episodes that targeted Izzy, who was autistic and the only Black student in class. Other incidents included harassment about her skin color, eyebrows and a beauty mark on her forehead, her mother said.
Tichenor-Cox informed the teacher, the school and the district about the bullying. She said nothing was done to improve the situation. Then on Nov. 6, at their home near Salt Lake City, Izzy died by suicide.
Her shocking death triggered an outpouring of anger about youth suicides, racism in the classroom and the treatment of children with autism - issues that have been highlighted by the nation's racial reckoning and a renewed emphasis on student mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In Utah, the suicide also intensified questions about the Davis School District, which was recently reprimanded by the Justice Department for failing to address widespread racial discrimination.
The district, where Black and Asian American students account for roughly 1 percent of the approximately 73,000 students, initially defended its handling of the bullying allegations but later launched an outside investigation that is ongoing.
"When I was crying out for help for somebody to do something, nobody even showed up for her," Tichenor-Cox said this week in an interview with the Associated Press. "It just hurts to know that my baby was bullied all day throughout school - from the time I dropped her off to the time I picked her up."
Being autistic made it difficult for Izzy to find words to express what she was feeling, but her mother sensed her daughter was internalizing the messages from school. She asked her mother to get rid of the beauty mark and shave her unibrow. Her mother told her those features made her different and beautiful. She told her mother her teacher didn't like her and wouldn't say hi or help with schoolwork.