As a South Carolina community continues to mourn a 10-year-old girl who died following a reported scuffle with another girl, a state senator has apologized for her commentary surrounding the death of Raniya Wright.
Parents of the late Forest Hills Elementary School student are still searching for answers about what happened to their daughter on March 25. They were livid last week when South Carolina State Senator Margie Bright Matthews made alarming comments concerning the girl’s death. The statements were perceived as an attempt to defend local school officials and a substitute teacher who initially broke up the fight.
Police and school district officials have all repeatedly refused to provide much information to the grieving parents or the public, telling reporters that an autopsy and police investigation would take about two weeks to finish. But that did not stop Sen. Matthews from getting on a State Senate podium on April 2 and making a series of claims that Raniya’s parents quickly disputed.
Sen. Matthews attempted to dismiss claims from the girl’s parents that Raniya had frequently complained of bullying at school.
“I think it’s a case of a 10-year-old acting like a 10-year-old,” Matthews told the crowd, according to The Post and Courier. “I’ve heard a lot of people say, ‘Oh, they were kicking her. They ganged her.’ None of that. That’s so far from the truth — not even the banging of (her) head. The head was not even an issue.”
ABC News 4 reports the politician has since apologized in a Facebook statement in which she iterated she never wanted to "minimize" the death of the young girl.
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Police had not released any of that information — not even to Raniya’s parents — and still declined to comment when asked for details on the girl’s death following the senator’s speech. In a statement, lawyers for Raniya’s mother, Ashley Wright, called the senator’s words “disheartening” and “deeply regrettable,” adding that “legislators should be regularly advancing legislation that serves the good of their communities and their constituents as opposed to waiting for tragedies that they believe would lend themselves well to the introduction of bills.”
Raniya died two days after the fight occurred. The other student involved in the scuffle has not been identified but has been suspended indefinitely. There were no cameras in the classroom when the fight occurred, and there are cameras in the hallway outside of the classroom, but Raniya’s parents have not been shown the video.
School officials said they stopped the fight and took the two girls to the principal’s office. Raniya complained of a headache and began to vomit when she was brought to the nurse’s office for treatment. She fell unconscious and was rushed to a local hospital before being airlifted to Medical University of South Carolina, where she died two days later.
Lawyers for Raniya's father, Jermaine Van Dyke, said the classroom where the fight happened was known for altercations over the years, and RaNiya repeatedly spoke of bullying at the school.
"I'm here today looking for justice for my daughter," Van Dyke told news outlets this week. "I want just to find out what happened, how it happened, and who was involved."
Raniya’s funeral took place on Wednesday, and band students were given the opportunity to attend. Many of her fifth-grade classmates wore pink and purple — her favorite colors — in her honor. The school will have its remembrance ceremony on Friday.
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