>
Three ‘bullies’ have been banned 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, committed suicide in August after being relentlessly 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 committed suicide. Excavated texts revealed the barrage of abuse – as her teammates tried to “cancel” and embarrassed her for talking to one of their exes.
Three female players, who were not identified, were charged with cyberbullying and have now been suspended from the Lightning High School Hockey League.
McKenna’s devastated parents Cheryl and Hunter Brown claim that their daughter was severely harassed by these girls and dated them just days before her death.
Despite the actions, the girls still attended McKenna’s funeral, but did not speak to her parents.
Scroll down for video
McKenna Brown, 16, of Pinellas County, committed suicide in mid-August after being relentlessly bullied and harassed online after she began talking to the ex-boyfriends of one of her hockey teammates. Five days later she took her own life
Three female players, who were not identified, have been charged with 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 floor and initially thought she was asleep. When she rolled 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 met an ex-boyfriend of the girl’s, whom she dated two years earlier.
The boy reportedly started “flirting” with McKenna and the learned athlete asked her boyfriend if she was okay to talk to him.
The next evening, the group went to the causeway, where the keeper hung out with the boy and the other girl began to get jealous, McKenna’s parents said. dr. Philo.
After dropping off McKenna at home the next morning, the young girl — who had recently gotten her driver’s license — received a “barrage of texts and phone calls from the girl,” the Browns told Dr. Phil.
“McKenna had asked that one friend/teammate if she would mind talking to her ex-boyfriend from two years earlier, and she said it was okay. A few days later she realized it wasn’t okay with a friend based on the way she took revenge,” Cheryl told Fox 13.
McKenna apologized to her boyfriend for “crossing the line” and spent the day discussing the animosity with her mother, who called her daughter her “best friend.”
McKenna had received a slew of texts from the girl and other friends, including messages saying, “You’ve done us all so wrong” and “Hope I never see you again.”
McKenna (pictured) was the goalkeeper of the team and was a learned athlete
The family went out for dinner later that night, and McKenna noticed her friends were all together after seeing their location through Snapchat’s map feature. That’s when her “face went white,” her mother said.
After seeing a movie together, McKenna decided the family would go to church the next morning.
When Cheryl entered her daughter’s room the next morning, she found McKenna “face down” on the floor.
‘I thought she was asleep. I went up to her and wanted to turn her around and she was cold and stiff and I knew she was gone,” the heartbroken mother told Dr. Phil.
In her daughter’s “thoughtful” suicide note, she forgot to name one of her alleged bullies, but her mother said she “knew it had to have something to do with these girls.”
“I had no idea, to what extent, a lot of what we learned and put together after it came after that,” Cheryl said on the show.
The letter reportedly told her parents that she felt “safe” at home and loved her family, but “missed a sense of belonging.”
The girls reportedly shared “really personal information” about McKenna — including that she was raped at age 14 — with other teammates and friends in order to “humiliate” and “embarrass her.”
Other text messages obtained by Fox 13show that the girl sent McKenna a message: “You’ve done us all so wrong” and “I hope I never see you again.”
She also got novel-length messages and was bombarded by other girls, including one that said they “wanted to leave her without a single friend.”
The high school student even took to social media to encourage others to “cancel” McKenna.
“How do you do that to someone?” her mother wondered to Fox 13.
The girl who did most of the bullying even showed up at McKenna’s funeral, and Cheryl believes the hockey player is “ruthless.”
‘[The bully] told one of her friends, “She got what she deserved.”
McKenna left a “thoughtful” farewell note, explaining to her parents that she felt “safe” at home and that she loved them. She told them she “missed a sense of belonging”
She didn’t blame the girls who harassed her in her note, her mother said
The girls shared “really personal information” about McKenna with other teammates and friends, including that she had been raped at age 14.
Her bully even showed up at her funeral, much to her mother’s surprise
The hockey league is now investigating the incident, along with Statewide Amateur Hockey of Florida (SAHOF) and USA Hockey.
McKenna’s parents and her other teammates remember the young girl for her kindness.
“She always cared about other people, so I know if I was, she would do the same for me and be behind me,” teammate Sarah Walters told Fox 13.
“I wish she could have seen through it too. The suspensions would still have happened and the consequences would have been there, and she would still be there.” Cheryl told the outlet.
Her parents planned to buy her a car so she could help drive her special needs sister around, and she had recently shifted her college plans because SAHOF had started a women’s league.
Her father even remembers how his straight-A daughter took another girl into the parking lot because she was being bullied.
For confidential support, call the National Suicide Prevention Line at 988.