Teen Girl Dies After Bathroom Fight at Delaware High School

This week 16-year old high school student Amy Inita Joyner-Francis was killed in a bathroom fight at Howard Highschool of Technology in Wilmington, Delaware. At 8:15 am on Thursday, a fight between Amy and two girls broke out and a student reported that Amy's head was hit on the sink. It's still under investigation if the fight was over a boy, as many social media rumors claim. Fellow students also reported that Amy, who was a sophomore, was not a fighter, always a peacemaker, and in this particular conflict she felt it was her need to talk it out.




The injured Amy was flown to A.I. DuPoint Hospital for children where she later died. There have been no charges made.

Is anyone paying attention to the youth? Not just paying attention when a bad or good news is being reported, but constantly paying attention to them and providing genuine care and support, Not just making less than honorable mentions, dropping statistics here and there to complete personal agendas, which is what I can't help but to notice is constantly done by many social justice groups.

I remember in January during all the hoopla about Beyonce's "Formation" music video and Superbowl performance I was reading through comments on a post questioning the singer's sincerity in her newfound "embracing" of "Black Lives Matter".One comment in particular stood out to me. A young lady who stated she was 19-years old wrote a comment saying she wished adults cared about the youth the way some of us care about celebrities. This is what young people are seeing. While some of us ferociously debate about the Kim K's, Kanye's, and Taylor Swift's, the youth are paying attention, taking note, and comparing celebrity worship to adult involvement in their own lives. We live in a society of people with short attention spans, so focused on entertainment, that so many of us are forgetting about raising the next generation.

While the "good" kids are constantly, yet deservedly praised for academic achievements, the "bad" kids are only brought up until it's too late. But are we paying attention to the signs? I'm not stating that there was no positive influence in the lives of the two girls who fought Amy, but for this fight to result in a death reveals to me some kind of deep seated fury from the teen(s) who assaulted Amy.

Just a few weeks ago, a 17-year old girl named Ta'Jae Warner in Brooklyn died after being brutally beaten by a group of teens. I notice so many social justice participants and groups who claim to be be advocates of women, advocates of minority communities, but be so silent on this constant issue. I understand that there are thousands of stories in the news daily, and that there are certain topics certain media stations and blogs cover, but I always notice how effortlessly meaningless celebrity news can be covered with no problem. How recycled, intangible rhetoric, theory based essays and articles are created merely out of the popular status quo of said community, yet no mention of the youth.

Whether or not this fight was over a boy, as we're still waiting on full details, I feel that there's so much pain, hurt, anger, and trauma young people are dealing with and will use any excuse to release it even if it's on someone else. I know this because I grew up knowing girls who fought to kill and needed any reason to fight. Children are watching adults in their neighborhoods, families, on social media live out lower self dysfunction. Then we have the nerve to ask: "What's wrong with these kids?" I'm not trying to be a moral police. I know adults are only human and will never be perfect angels or role models, but the facts are the facts. Rest in peace to Amy and Ta'Jae.

Source: Fatal fight at Delaware high school brings grief, questions