McKenzie Adams, a black 9-year-old girl from Alabama, committed suicide after she was relentlessly mocked and taunted by her classmates over her friendship with a white friend, according to the Tuscaloosa News.
The media outlet cited Adams' relatives as saying that she hanged herself December 3 in her home in Linden, about 161 kilometres (100 miles) west of Alabama's capital city of Montgomery, and that she was discovered by her grandmother.
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Her aunt Eddwina Harris referred to a group of Adams' classmates in Jones Elementary School who Harris claimed teased the girl and told her to kill herself.
"She was being bullied the entire school year, with words such as 'kill yourself,' 'you think you're white because you ride with that white boy,' 'you ugly,' 'black b****,' 'just die'", Harris explained.
The tragedy terrified almost all Twitter users who expressed condolences to the girl's loved ones and wondered where "the school administration and the school district board were".
Many expressed consternation about what they described as a "shameful" and "heart-breaking" incident, with one netizen pointing the finger at parents of Adams' classmates calling them "monsters".
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The school's attorney Alex Braswell has, meanwhile, said in a statement that he is "working fully with the Demopolis and Linden police department” and that "they are doing a joint investigation of these allegations".
"We are cooperating fully and I can't comment on any of the aspects of the investigation until they conclude it", he added.