Episode 53 - KELAIA'S SOLUTION pt 1

Empowering Kelaia: A Path To Healing (gofundme)

Dr. Vanessa Tyler has a conversation with Ty Turner, mother of 14 year old Kelaia Turner. When Kelaia was 12 years old she was a victim of verbal and physical bullying by her South Carolina classmates for over a year. Eventually, Kelaia attempted suicide by hanging herself in 2023. Kelaia now suffers from permanent brain damage and requires round-the-clock care. Ty Turner tells us about her fight to provide care and justice for her daughter and she shares insight into Kelaia's spirit. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Kaleiah Turner playing the piano. She was getting better before
it happened.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Hello, how are you? I am Jane Well, thank you
for asking.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Ty Turner, Kaliah's mother, who went to check on her
twelve year old daughter the evening of March seventeenth, twenty
twenty three. What she saw horrible.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I found my beautiful, bright girl hanging from the belt
of her robe, from the loft of her bunk.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Her child tried to kill herself. Here why in black Land.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
And now as a brown person, you just feel so invisible.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Where we're from. Brothers and sisters, are welcome you to
this joyful day.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
We celebrate freedom. Where we are I know someone heard
something and where we're going. We the people means all
the people. The Black Information Network presents Blackland with the
your host, Vanessa Tyler.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
Kids can be so cruel and they were really mean
to ty Turner's daughter, Khaleia at her middle school in
Greenville County, South Carolina. Ty Turner, thank you for joining me.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
This story is horrible.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
What was it like for Kalia at her Greenville County,
South Carolina school?

Speaker 2 (01:22):
Initially? I mean she had an excellent academic career in
Greenville County schools. I'd say from kindergarten up through the
fifth grade, I mean, just absolutely remarkable. She's a wonderful student,
always has been on honor rolls, and I'm very involved,
had lots and lots of friends. The change began when
I got her special permission to attend a STEM school

(01:45):
that was directly across the street from my place of work.
And you know, we felt that not only would it
be excellent for her education, but also just for our
morning routine, and you know, we'd be able to spend
more time together. But I did notice about two months
into her sixth grade year that her effervescent, bubbly personality

(02:11):
began to be a little more somber, a little more
full of angst and and just being the type of
mom that I am and asking those probing questions I
found out that she was experiencing. At that time, I
wouldn't even have labeled it bullying. I think we've we've
conditioned ourselves so much to make this a normal part

(02:32):
of societal behavior. But you know, she had a few
mean girl instances, if you will, that we really didn't
think too much of, and really did think it would
be par for the course. You know, if if they
go low, we go high. You know, I'm six and
stones may break our bones, but words will never hurt us.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
You know, the words did more than hurt, They destroyed
her little girl. The name calling referring to the pretty
black childism man teasing her, peach fuzz mustache, calling her
a roach in the classroom.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
All while the teacher was sitting there. At one particular
point in time, the young lady and Khalia were going
back and forth over her having called Khalia a roach,
and the young lady asked the classroom, where did they
see a roach? And the teacher actually pointed in the
direction of Kalia, And the teacher did admit that she did.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
That her black child was dealing with white students singing
cotton picking songs. But it was the black students, black girls,
who were the meanest of them all.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
The group that really were intensely bullying her was a
group of girls. They were black, they were mixed, and
there were a couple of boys that were related to
these girls that would join into this as well.

Speaker 1 (03:55):
So for about a year, Kalia's parents went to the school,
demanded meetings, complain it didn't stop. In past statements from
the Greenville County School District. They claim to have addressed
every concern the turners had while emphasizing a zero tolerance
for bullying.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
It's an absolute lie that they addressed every incident. They
were ignorant for most of it. And Kaleia was on
her end reaching out to administrators, guidance counselors, and teachers,
and on my end, I was emailing teachers and administrators,

(04:34):
and neither one of us were able to meet the
resolution that we were looking for. Like I said, Kalaia
was largely ignored. Some of her last emails two administration
were in December of twenty twenty two, requesting to change
communities because the school was broken down into communities by

(04:54):
color red, blue, yellow, green, and each of these are
at community tea within itself that has its own group
of teachers for instruction. And the community that she was
housed and was also where a lot of her bullies
were housed. And she reached out to a guidance counselor
and an administrator separately on the same day and was

(05:17):
blown off by both. Three months later, I found her hanging.
Khalia had had enough. I don't think anything could ever
prepare you for that site. And I can still see it,
blood coming from her nose. She had on a pair
of wetpants and they were wet with her urine, and

(05:41):
she was cool to the touch, And I just couldn't
believe it.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
Couldn't believe her baby tried to end it all and
nearly did. When we come back, the damage is done.
It's a permanent solution to what should have been a
temporary problem. But why this mother of faith sees a
purpose in Kaleiah's catastrophic condition. In Part two of Kaleiah's Solution,