ELBA CITY, Ala. — When relentless bullying, harassment, and discrimination led transgender teenager SW to commit suicide on August 9, 2023, parents Carmeisha and Cory Williams went looking for answers. Now they’re fighting for justice, filing a federal lawsuit against the Elba City Board of Education, and past principals Wynn Grimes and Dr. Warren Weeks.
The lawsuit says that Elba City ignored the 14-year-old’s repeated cries for help, and also failed to implement the basic anti-bullying protections outlined in Alabama law.
S.W’s parents are represented by Artur Davis, at HKM Employment Attorneys LLP, and Matthew Billips, Constance Cooper, and Ben Stark at Barrett and Farahany, two nationally recognized civil rights firms.
14-year-old faced relentless bullying over identity before dying by suicide.
The lawsuit details a nightmare where students and teachers alike subjected the 14-year-old to the worst kind of bullying ranging from mocking and ridicule after SW came out as gay and requested to be called a gender neutral and identified with they/them pronouns, to some students calling them “crazy” and telling them they “should try better next time” to kill themselves after the constant bullying drove the victim into a mental health facility.
Meanwhile, neither the school nor the district took any action to protect SW. When Carmeisha Williams took the issue to then-principal Wynn Grimes, the principal failed to so much as provide the forms necessary to report the bullying even though Alabama’s anti-bullying law required him to do so and, when the bullying became so severe that SW’s parents tried to transfer them, school officials refused to allow the withdrawal.
According to the lawsuit, events came to a head on August 8, 2023, when a later principal, Dr. Warren Weeks, berated SW in front of roughly 50 other students and forcibly removed the hoodie the 14-year-old was wearing, revealing only a small tank top underneath and exposing SW’s self-harm scars to all watching. Despite seeing the scars and clear mortification, Weeks kept the hoodie, forcing SW to suffer this exposure for the rest of the school day.
On the next day, August 9, 2023, SW died by suicide.
Related Stories
- Student’s Death Sparks National Impact after Examiner Report
- Vigil for non-binary teen who died after school Bathroom beating
- Owasso students stage walkout, demand justice for Nex Benedict
- ‘That was my child’: Transgender deaths devastate families
Attorneys say school leaders failed their legal duty to protect a vulnerable child.
“Our Constitution and our laws are not silent about the obligations to children in public schools: they are to be nurtured and protected, not abandoned to cruelty,” Davis said. “This lawsuit seeks accountability for a school system’s failure to respect this child’s life.”
“How any responsible school system could put a bully in charge of stopping bullies is beyond me,” Billips said. “They might as well put inmates in charge of the prison. I’m grateful there’s a new administration and hopefully they will turn this shameful episode into something that approaches justice for SW and their parents.”
