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Three ‘bullies’ have been suspended from a Florida hockey league after they allegedly drove a 16-year-old girl to suicide when she started talking to one of their ex-boyfriends.
McKenna Brown, of Pinellas County, killed herself in August after she was ruthlessly bullied and harassed online by girls she had been friends with for years.
Within just five days of the events unfolding, the 16-year-old took her own life. Unearthed texts revealed the barrage of abuse – as her teammates’ attempted to ‘cancel’ and embarrass her for chatting to one of their exes.
Three female players, who were not identified, were accused of cyberbullying her and have now been suspended from the Lightning High School Hockey League.
McKenna’s devastated parents Cheryl and Hunter Brown claim their daughter was severely harassed by these girls and hung out with them a few days prior to her passing.
Despite the actions, the girls still attended McKenna’s funeral, but did not speak to her parents.
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McKenna Brown, 16, of Pinellas County, killed herself in mid-August after she was ruthless bullied and harassed online after she started talking to one of her hockey teammates’ ex-boyfriends. Five days later, she took her own life
Three female players, who were not identified, have been accused of bullying McKenna (pictured) and have been suspended from the Lightning High School Hockey League for cyberbullying
Her mother Cheryl found her in her room ‘face down’ on the ground and originally thought she sleeping. When she went to roll her over, she found her daughter ‘cold and stiff’
McKenna and the girls – some of whom had been her friends for many years – had gone to the beach when they encountered one of the girl’s ex-boyfriend, who she dated two years prior.
The boy reportedly started ‘flirting’ with McKenna and the scholar athlete asked her friend if she was okay to talk to him.
The next evening, the group went to the causeway, where the goalie hung out with the boy and the other girl started to get jealous, McKenna’s parents told Dr. Phil.
After dropping McKenna off at home the next morning, the young girl – who had recently gotten her driver’s license – started getting a ‘barrage of texts and phone calls from the girl,’ the Browns told Dr. Phil.
‘McKenna had asked the one friend/teammate if she’d mind if she talked to her ex-boyfriend from two years earlier, and she said it was okay. She then realized a few days later that it wasn’t okay with a friend based on how she retaliated,’ Cheryl told Fox 13.
McKenna apologized to her friend for ‘crossing the line’ and spent the day discussing the hostility with her mom, who called her daughter her ‘best friend.’
McKenna had received an array of text from the girl and other friends, including messages that said: ‘You have done all of us so wrong’ and ‘I hope I never see you again’
McKenna (pictured) was the goalie on the team and was a scholar athlete
The family went to dinner later that night and McKenna noticed her friends were all together, after seeing their location via Snapchat’s map feature. That’s the moment her ‘face went white,’ her mother said.
After watching a movie together, McKenna decided the family was going to go to church the next morning.
When Cheryl entered her daughter’s room the next morning, she found McKenna ‘face down’ on the ground.
‘I thought she was sleeping. I went over to her and went to turn her over and she was cold and stiff and I knew that she was gone,’ the heartbroken mother told Dr. Phil.
In her daughter’s ‘thoughtful’ suicide note, she neglected to name drop any of her alleged bullies, but her mother said she ‘knew that it had to have had something to do with these girls.’
‘I had no idea, to what degree, a lot of what we learned and pieced together after it came afterwards,’ Cheryl said on the show.
The letter reportedly told her parents that she felt ‘safe’ at home and loved her family, but was ‘lacking a sense of belongingness.’
The girls reportedly shared ‘really personal information’ about McKenna – including that she had been raped at the age of 14 – with other teammates and friends to ‘humiliate’ and ’embarrass her.’
Other text messages, obtained by Fox 13, show that the girl messaged McKenna: ‘You have done all of us so wrong’ and ‘I hope I never see you again.’
She also was sent novel-length messages and was bombarded by other girls, including one message that reported said they ‘wanted to leave her without a single friend.’
The high schooler even took to social media to encourage others to ‘cancel’ McKenna.
‘How do you do that to somebody?’ her mother wondered to Fox 13.
The girl who had done the majority of the bullying even showed up to McKenna’s funeral and Cheryl believes the hockey player is ‘unremorseful.’
‘[The bully] had mentioned to one of her friends: “She had got what she deserved.”‘
McKenna left a ‘thoughtful’ suicide note, explaining to her parents that she felt ‘safe’ at home and that she loved them. She told them she ‘lacked a sense of belonging’
She did not blame the girls who were harassing her in her note, her mother said
The girls shared ‘really personal information’ about McKenna to other teammates and friends, including that she had been raped at 14
Her bully even showed up to her funeral, quite to her mother’s surprise
The hockey league is now investigating the incident, alongside Statewide Amateur Hockey of Florida (SAHOF) and USA Hockey.
McKenna’s parents and her other teammates are remembering the young girl for her kindness.
‘She always cared about other people, so I know if that were me, she would be doing the same thing for me and having my back,’ teammate Sarah Walters told Fox 13.
‘I just wish she could have seen through it too. The suspensions would have still happened and repercussions would have been there, and she’d still be here.’ Cheryl told the outlet.
Her parents were planning on buying her a car so she could help drive around her special needs sister and she had recently shifted her college plans because SAHOF had started a female league.
Her father even remember how his straight-A daughter used to walk another girl out to the parking because she was bullied.
For confidential support call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 988.
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