A 14-year-old girl who died via suicide last year was reportedly omitted from her high school yearbook, leaving her parents aghast.
Last week, she said that the yearbook didn’t include Rose.
“My family was very hurt,” Beth told the news outlet. She said her other daughter Rachel “wanted to do something about it.”
Rachael added to Yahoo that she contacted the school’s yearbook committee.
“The excuse that they gave me was that their advisor told me there was no room in the yearbook,” Rachel told the outlet. “14 letters [spelling Rose’s name] could’ve easily fit in the not pictured section.”
“This wasn’t fair to Rose, she’s not here to defend herself,” her mother added. “So her big sister, in the fashion that she’s always exhibited throughout Rose’s life, she’s got her back. That’s something that the school can’t say. They don’t have their backs.”
Beth told the outlet that the teen had Lyme disease and an undiagnosed autoimmune disease called PANDAS. She said the girl was depressed and anxious before she died.
“We had tried different medications and they didn’t help her. I feel like we kind of ran out of time,” Beth told Yahoo. “I guess the struggle got too tough for her and she couldn’t see that at some point it would pass with the right medicine. And she ended her life in September.”
Downingtown Area School District issued a statement in response to the yearbook controversy.
“DHS East and the Downingtown Area School District continue to mourn the loss of Rose Rondinelli. She was a very special person and is deeply missed by her friends and staff members throughout the district. Rose died shortly before student photos of each class were taken on September 11, 2018. These school photos have traditionally been placed in the back of the Senior Class yearbook,” the statement said.
It added: “Rose will long be remembered, and we cherish the contributions she made to DASD in her short life. We regret any pain we inadvertently caused the Rondinelli family. Our tradition has always been to include all deceased students in the yearbook of what would have been their senior year. Rose’s photo will be included in the class yearbook of 2022.”
The family, however, wasn’t impressed with the statement, saying that the school’s lack of action sends a bad message to other students.
“They say every student matters, but Rose didn’t matter to them,” Beth told Yahoo. “It’s a horrible message to say if you have a mental illness, you don’t matter. If you make the choice to end your life because you’re in so much pain, you don’t deserve to be recognized as a student.”
