‘Why are you trying to kill us?’ peers torment middle schooler over name

NAPLES, Fla.- Isis Johnson is just 12 years old, but every day she receives a harsh lesson in how cruel kids can be.

The sixth grader at North Naples Middle School is named after an Egyptian goddess who was a protector and healer but her classmates are constantly taunting and tormenting her, associating her name with the terrorist group that promotes hate.

“Some people call me Paris and some people will be like ‘why are you being a bully to America?'” Johnson said. “Like the most chances people can get to make fun of me.”

She says a third of the kids in her grade, mostly boys, are making middle school miserable. After school, things get even worse on the bus.

“He was saying ‘why are you trying to kill us? You’re such a bully,” Johnson said, describing just some of the hurtful words she has to deal with.

“That sounds to me like the beginning of, of a hate crime,” said Dr. Laura Streyffeler, a licensed mental health counselor. “Based on the things that they’re saying, it’s not just saying you have a funny name, but based on those kinds of comments, they’re basically making hateful slurs.”

Johnson’s situation while sad, isn’t the only one.

“To all you people out there who have the name Isis, I know what you’re going through,” said Isis Brown, a teenager in Oklahoma who was also bullied mercilessly because of her name, and ended up transferring to a new school. “Last year at school, I was called terrorist. Same with this year.”

In 2014, close to 400 baby girls born in the United States were named Isis, according to the Social Security Administration. The name’s popularity peaked in 2005 at 561.

“I think it’s a gorgeous name,” said Johnson’s mother, Angie Forbing.

But Johnson says she wants to change her name, she’s already started introducing herself by her middle name “Jada.”

“It’s more of a common name and not a name people can make fun of you of,” said Johnson.

“By introducing herself by her middle name, what she’s saying is ‘I’m afraid to tell you who I really am,” Streyffeler said. “I think that the message that sends is pretty scary.”

Streyffeler says the best thing people can do is empower Isis, to let her help decide how best to handle things, something her mom says she’s doing.

“I’ve tried different approaches. I’ve told her to come talk to me or to the counselor if it bothers you, just ignore them. The other day, I told her to tell them ‘you’re silly’ and just kind of laugh at them. So I just try to give her different approaches, whatever she’s comfortable with,” said Forbing.

Streyffeler says changing Isis’s name shouldn’t be off the table, but her mom hopes it doesn’t come to that.

The 12-year-old says the teasing stopped for a while after a school counselor stepped in, but a few days later, it started up again. Johnson says she doesn’t want to get the school’s principal involved and is trying to get better at ignoring the hurtful comments.