ROANOKE, Va. – Thursday night, the Roanoke County School Board held its first public meeting since 10-year-old Autumn Bushman took her own life. The district’s policy on bullying is now front and center.
10 News Anchor Lindsey Kennett was at that meeting Thursday night.
Ahead of the meeting, she spoke with Tara Delp, a former teacher at Mountain View Elementary. Delp says bullying and behavioral issues have been ongoing problems at the school, and she fears for other students’ safety.
“It shouldn’t have ever come to this, to why we’re here today. Any child that’s being victimized should feel supported and protected. And I don’t think she did,” said Delp.
Delp says she remembers seeing Autumn Bushman in the halls at Mountain View Elementary.
“I taught her older stepsister, and I certainly remember seeing her sweet face in the hallway,” Delp said.
When Delp learned about Autumn’s death, she was crushed.
“It makes me angry ‘cause I felt like, I felt like it could have been prevented. And, you know, kids should know that it’s not that hopeless. She was only 10.”
Delp spent her 19-year career teaching 3rd and 5th grade at Mountain View. She got her degree in Child Psychology at Virginia Tech and her Master’s in Education Administration & Supervision at UVA.
“I’ll never not be a teacher in my heart,” she said.
Delp says that Autumn’s story is not an isolated incident.
“By the time I left, nobody felt protected,” said Delp. “The concerns fell on deaf ears.”
She says bullying and behavioral problems were left unaddressed—saying that school leadership was notified time and time again about students harassing their peers and adults.
“It was just so scary,” Delp added. “There were multiple occasions where a child would be assaulting an adult or threatening—and in the face of—an adult. And I’d have other students in tears.”
She says her own son—a fifth grader at the time—was even bullied.
“My son was just going to bed crying every night saying, ‘What if he comes after me? He’s threatening me,‘” she recalled.
Delp pulled her son out of the school and made the tough decision to resign in 2023.
“I think the year before I left, at least a dozen teachers left. When I left, I think 14 did. And the following year, a similar number,” said Delp.
In the wake of Autumn’s passing, Delp is sounding the alarm again.
“We shouldn’t have come to this, and what can we do? What do we need to do? ‘Cause it’s got to stop,” said Delp. “Those kids with behaviors need help and the kids that are being victimized need to feel protected.”
