'You think you're White because you ride with that White Boy': Bullied black Alabama girl, 9, commits suicide after classmates taunted her for having a white friend and told her to 'kill yourself'

Jasmine Adams, left, with her daughter McKenzie Adams, who killed herself after relentless bullying from schoolmates

A nine-year-old girl has committed suicide after being bullied by her fourth-grade classmates.

McKenzie Adams was found by her grandmother in her Linden, Alabama, home after she hanged herself, the Tuscaloosa News reported. Family members say she had been harassed since the beginning of the school year.

Family members say McKenzie had transferred to U.S. Jones Elementary School in Demopolis, Alabama, because she had been bullied at her school in Linden.

McKenzie's mother, Jasmine Adams, told CBS 42  that much of the bullying came from her friendship with a white boy and how his family would drive her to school.   

'She told me that this one particular child was writing her nasty notes in class,' McKenzie's mother said. 'It was just things you wouldn't think a nine-year-old should know.'

'Part of it could have been because she rode to school with a white family,' she continued. 'And a lot of it was race, some of the student bullies would say to her 'why you riding with white people you're black, you're ugly. You should just die'. ' 

McKenzie's aunt, Eddwina Harris, also told the Tuscaloosa News about the racially-motivated taunting.

'She was being bullied the entire school year, with words such as 'kill yourself,' 'you think you're white because you ride with that white boy,' 'you ugly,' 'black b-tch,' 'just die',' she echoed.

The grieving family felt the school system failed her daughter.

'I just felt that our trust was in them that they would do the right thing,' Adams told CBS 42, 'And it feels like to me it wasn't it wasn't done'. 

'We are working fully with the Demopolis and Linden police department. They are doing a joint investigation of these allegations,' said schools attorney, Alex Braswell in a statement. 

'We are cooperating fully and I can't comment on any of the aspects of the investigation until they conclude it.'

Harris described her niece as a girl who loved the beach, the zoo and wanted to be a scientist some day. She intends to use her platform as a a media personality in Atlanta to speak out for other bullied children.

'God has blessed me to help others with my platform, and now it's time to help. There are so many voiceless kids,' Eddwina Harris said to the News. 'God is opening great doors for justice for my niece.' 

Funeral services are to be held on Saturday at McKenzie's school, U.S. Jones elementary in Demopolis.

• For confidential help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or click here
• For confidential support on suicide matters in the UK, call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here
• For confidential support in Australia, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or click here