WARNING: This article deals with suicide. Discretion is advised.
Laurenta and Randall Colombe say their daughter Marietta Star was an easygoing, loving child.
“She was very kind and obedient,” says the girl’s mom. “She listened. I always considered her my little helper.”
“It didn’t take much to make her happy,” says her dad.
That is, until recently. The Colombes say their 11-year-old started sleeping more, didn’t want to shower or take care of herself and tried to avoid school.
They say she was being bullied.
“It’s just stupid how society is. The way they you’re supposed to look or how you’re supposed to act,” says the girl’s father, her mother adding that she was picked on for her hair and clothes.
Randall Colombe says he went to the north-end elementary school Maurietta attended.
“I (said) my daughter doesn’t like being picked on and being bullied what are you guys going to do about this,” he says. “Nothing was ever done.”
On Feb. 4, he was finishing at work while his wife took their eldest of seven kids to get a cake for his 18th birthday.
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Marietta was left home with siblings and seemed excited there would be cake later.
Laurenta and her eldest returned home two hours later to the unimaginable.
Marietta was found in a room in the basement with a rope around her neck tied to joist.
“Her face was cold and I just gently laid her down and I started CPR,” says her mom. Paramedics couldn’t save the girl.
Winnipeg police found a crumpled note in Marietta’s pillow case and the family has since found drawings depicting the girl’s torment at school.
“That’s pressure a lot of pressure for a little 11-year-old,” says her grandmother, Freda Moose. “My baby’s gone. It’s so heartless — it’s cruel. Bullying is cruel to death.”
The family is sharing their grief in hopes that schools and parents will do more to stop bullying.
“I wouldn’t want anyone to go through what we’re going through,” Laurenta says. Marietta was the middle of seven children, each now grappling with their sister’s death.
The Winnipeg School Division has conflict resolution and mediation protocols in schools but did not say if those were followed in this matter.
The division told Global News this is a “heartbreaking loss” and intensive clinical services have been provided for staff and students at the school.
Anti-bullying advocates say there’s more to be done.
“We have to continue to have the conversation with kids,” says Carolyn Tuckwell, an anti-bullying advocate with the Boys and Girls Club.
“Help kids understand that really how we interact with each other can have such a positive influence world or it can have a completely negative influence in the world.”
Something the Colombes know too well.
If you or someone you know is struggling, help is available 24/7. Call or text 988 to reach the National Suicide Crisis Helpline.
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