A 9-year-old Syrian refugee girl has been found dead in her room in Calgary, Canada after being reportedly bullied by her classmates.
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Amal Alshteiwi had moved to Canada three years ago with her family seeking asylum from their war-torn country, Syria. In March 2019, she was found by her parents dead in her room after committing suicide.
Her parents confirmed she has been facing physical and verbal abuse in school by her classmates who bullied her and repeatedly described her as “ugly” and “stupid." Therefore, they transferred her to a new school four days before she killed herself.
Amal’s mother also confirmed that her daughter was told by her classmates before switching schools that “Even if you move to another school, they are not going to love you, the kids nor the teachers. Wherever you go, you better just go and kill yourself."
According to her parent’s testimony, Amal had been returning from school all upset and complaining about her classmates and they reached out the school’s management multiple times, yet, the management did not offer them any help.
Despite all of that, the police investigation did not find enough evidence to prompt a criminal investigation into bullying accusations.
9-yr-old #refugee Amal commits suicide 3 years after fleeing #Syria to #Canada as a result of bullying at school. 2 weeks before she decided to move schools, kids came to her & said, 'Even if you move to another school they are not going to love you, just go & kill yourself.' ? pic.twitter.com/XwJn0dielp
— DOAM (@doamuslims) April 14, 2019
Human rights organizations and many activists have been talking about Amal.
@yyCBEdu You ought to be ashamed as an organization to take no accountability or responsibility for the suicide of 9-year old Amal Alshteiwi.
— Leila Ghauri (@leilaghauri) April 15, 2019
Little girls don't just kill themselves for no reason. pic.twitter.com/vQ502Pu0uI
Aiming at raising awareness of the dangers of bullying in schools, Amal’s story has taken Twitter by storm.
@CalgaryPolice It's not okay for you people to blow off investigating the death of Amal Alshteiwi with the lame excuse there's "not enough evidence of bullying." SOMEBODY drove that little girl to kill herself. All of Canada needs to know who, and why.
— Kitty Grimnirs (@KittyGrimnirs) April 14, 2019
