ELBA, Ala. (WDHN) — Last Wednesday, Shanea Williams left her home early to go to her husband’s job site and when they returned that morning, she found her 14-year-old daughter Shanaiya had shot and killed herself while getting ready for school.

An unbearable week for a mother.

“I can’t eat, I can’t sleep, everything you would dread I’m going through it, I raised that baby and protected her every chance I could,” She said.

But she said as a student in Elba City Schools her daughter didn’t feel protected especially in high school. Starting in 2020, she noticed her daughter, who was 11 then, had been going through hard times during the school day and had physical signs of bullying — scars and cuts on her arm.

“We went to a mental health doctor’s appointment and she told us there because she didn’t want to tell us at home and get all upset,” Wiliams said.

Doctors prescribed Buspar a common medication to treat anxiety. She told her mom that students made fun of her because of the side effects it caused her — coughing, sneezing, and vomiting during class.

“Some of those students were just germophobic,” She said. “I feel like her whole class was picking on her saying we will find out if she is pregnant or not, or I don’t want to be her friend because she is sick all the time and just saying a lot of harmful and cruel things.”

In 2021, she was admitted to a Luverne Hospital for mental health treatment and that’s around the time they informed school officials about their daughter’s condition. They told Wynn Grimes who was principal at the time and a guidance counselor who is no longer working there.

“I told him she just got out of the hospital and she told me she wants to kill herself,” Her mother said. “You trust these schools to protect your children and when they don’t what do you do?”

Since then, she said little to nothing has been done about bullying.

“Not that I can tell she was still being bullied,” She added.

Williams said after three years of bullying and no action from the school, her daughter was finally pushed over the edge this school year.

On the second day of school, she said her daughter came home and that the new principal Dr. Warren Weeks made her take off a hoodie she was wearing — although there was no rule against it.

She didn’t want to remove it because she had a tank top on underneath and didn’t want to show her scars, but her mother said Dr. Weeks tried to take the hoodie off himself.

“I am pretty sure her thoughts were not this again I do not want to get bullied again,” Williams said.

Williams says her baby girl was the farthest thing from a bully she was kind and talented — she played trombone in the tiger band.

“She could draw she was the best drawer I knew and she would read from sun up and down if you would let her,” She said.

WDHN wanted to speak with the Elba High School Principal Dr. Warren Weeks and we were referred to the district office.

The superintendent Chris Mosely told us they are not going to comment at this time as they have a legal team investigating the matter.

The funeral for Williams will be Thursday afternoon at Bethlehem Missionary Baptist Church at 1 p.m.

If you would like to donate to help the family, they have a GoFundMe.

If you or someone you know is considering suicide, there are crisis lines available 24/7 at 988.