Father searches for answers after he says bullying led to stepdaughter's suicide

HOUSTON – Jacob Flores rushed home Friday to find his 15-year-old stepdaughter with a belt around her neck.

She wasn’t breathing.

"I started working on her and just kept working on her. Doing my compressions and pulling hair back, and kept going, kept going," Flores said.

Alyssia Sosa never regained consciousness.

Her family believes she was the victim of bullying -- and worse.

Her death came two days after he says a male classmate attempted to fondle her in class.

"She said she started crying immediately. I don’t know where her teachers were. There was a movie on. It was dark," Flores said.

She called her parents. When Flores went to the school that day, he said she was hiding in a bathroom.

Alyssia was emotionally fragile. She suffered from bipolar disorder, and emotional problems cause by a head injury as a child. He says school officials moved the boy out of her class, but didn’t remove him from the school.

“They should have moved that boy right away from the school so my daughter wouldn’t have had to pass him in class, pass him in hallway, pass him anywhere,” Flores said.

Flores says Alyssia was also intimidated by two female classmates during the school year, even admitting to him that she’d skipped class to avoid one of them.

Flores says he has hired a lawyer to review the school’s policies, and he’s set up a GoFundMe account to help pay for funeral expenses and to erect an anti-bullying memorial to his daughter.

"My wife no longer has her daughter, I want some closure, I need some closure, I need to know why. If anybody knows why please (let me know)," Flores said.

There is also a website to help with suicide prevention.

Lamar Consolidated Independent School District Statement:

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the student’s family and friends. Her death weighs heavily on the Lamar CISD community, as the loss of a young person affects us all. A team of grief counselors are at the campus and available to help other students cope with this tragic event.

"All allegations of bullying are taken very seriously by Lamar CISD. The District’s investigation is ongoing."

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