She said she was home alone on a July day, and the thought of going back to class in the fall to face the students tormenting her at Fairfield Middle School frightened her.
“I was just thinking about everything that happened at the time, then it was just everything that happened in my life came in one emotion,” the 14-year-old said. “I just felt like nothing was going to get better.”
Sydney said she now realizes she and Emilie had more in common than she could have ever guessed.
“I wish I could have stood up for her,” Sydney said. “I wish I could have at least known her or talked to her and said something to her, because maybe I could have saved her.”
On Dec. 11, 2014, police said Emilie sat in a chair on the second floor of her family’s home, put her father’s gun to her head and pulled the trigger.
Eight days later, Fairfield City School Superintendent Paul Otten released a letter to the community that stated there was “no credible evidence that bullying was a factor” in Emilie’s death.
But WCPO’s I-Team found emails, school reports, a social media account and more that showed the exact opposite was true.
After seeing the I-Team’s report in May, Sydney and her mother decided they needed to speak up. They said there were too many similarities between Sydney and Emilie’s school lives that led them to suicide. It was time to do something about it, they said.
Two Girls Linked By Torment
Sydney said she opened her locker one day to find a note advising her to kill herself.
It reads: “Sydney your a Dumb b**** your life sucks it will be for the rest of the year if you remain here die in a hole because no one likes you you’re a b**** a** w**** leave the school (sic).”
Sydney also learned a fake Instagram account had been created with her photo. Its title: “b****yourugly”
The first comment reads, “Look at yourself ur a fat b**** look at your stomach you look like a hippo look at your legs fat a** ur fake as f*** no one likes you kill yourself no one will miss you die w****(sic).”
Each message took a toll on Sydney, her mother Danielle Lewis said.
“It’s painful,” Danielle said. “It hurts to see your child in pain and you really can’t do a lot.”
Emilie shared that pain too.
Before her death, Emilie’s father Marc Olsen emailed school administrators and asked about a “fake Instagram account” mocking his daughter.
The profile has since been removed, but saved images of the account are still floating around the community.
Each Instagram account tells the story of a child singled out for ridicule. For Emilie, that bullying ended in death.
“I know how Emilie’s parents feel,” Danielle said. “That could have been my daughter. That could have been her story. I could have been talking about my deceased daughter.”
Danielle said she went to school administrators on her daughter’s behalf several times and was always told school leaders were looking into the bullying.
But they never had the right solution, she said.
“I really would like to see – not only in that school but any school – some type of mental health specialist,” Danielle said. “These regular counselors and principals, they don’t know a lot about depression or these kids being bullied, how it affects them mentally.”
Four days after Emilie’s suicide, Fairfield City School District administrators were confident enough to release this statement to parents and students:
“There have been many rumors and misinformation about bullying with regard to this tragedy. The district has never had an indication – by self-report, or reports from others – that bullying has ever occurred.”
Then, a few hours later, district officials issued a second response that said, “The middle school administration was advised of previous concerns regarding bullying, however, the district believed the issue had been resolved with the complete satisfaction of the family.”
Danielle said she believes school leaders initially ruled out bullying in Emilie’s case because of the district’s reputation.
“Fairfield City Schools are good schools,” she said. “I think they just didn’t want the negativity of a bullying issue at their school. But they definitely have a bullying issue at their school.”
The I-Team went to Fairfield Middle School in May to press for more information about the district’s handling of Olsen’s suicide and bullying policies, but Fairfield School District Spokeswoman Gina Gentry-Fletcher said the administration would not be issuing an official statement.
“We’re done with you,” she told the I-Team.
Two days after the I-Team’s investigation aired – and a subsequent article written by the Journal-News published – Gentry-Fletcher told administrators not to speak to reporters from the two media outlets.
“All, due to repeated problems with accuracy, the partnership that (the Journal-News) has with WCPO Channel 9, and the lack of fair and balanced news coverage of our district, we will no longer deal with the Journal-News. This is effective immediately,” Gentry-Fletcher told school leaders in emails obtained through an open records request.
“We will respond to public records requests only,” she wrote. “If any reporter from the Journal or 9 News contacts you, you are under no obligation to return the call.”
However, the district lifted the ban of the Journal-News at the suggestion of Tom Heisler, who was then a member of the school board.
“For what it is worth, I think this is the wrong approach to take regarding Cox Media … at best, we look like poor sports. At worst, we look like we are hiding something,” wrote Heisler, who suggested encouraging the Journal-News to write positive stories about the district.
Supreintendent Paul Otten responded to Heisler saying that the Journal-News would not be blocked, but that WCPO would be “due to their poor and deliberate misuse of information to sell a story.”
Heisler resigned earlier this month from the board of education because he was moving out of the district to live in Reily Twp.
Gentry-Fletcher told the Journal-News Friday the district had no comment on Sydney’s case, and that the district has not discussed revising its bullying policies.
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