Friends Believe Jahi McMath, "Quiet Leader," is Alive | NBC Bay Area

I swore to myself that I was not going to comment any more on this tragedy. I figured what more could be said or done, then this:

“The school told us that she’s not officially dead yet,” said Dymond Allen, one of Jahi's friends at EC Reems Academy of Technology and Arts in East Oakland, a public charter school that serves mostly disadvantaged kids. “And we should keep her in our prayers. I still hope. And God has the last say-so.”

[,,,]
One parent, who asked not to be identified, said that while her daughters both believe that Jahi might recover, she is a “realist” who, if she bases "everything on science," believes that "Jahi has passed on."

Still, she acknowledged that it’s very hard telling her daughters that, and because she, too, is spiritual and believes "in the power of prayer" And that those prayers might just "turn this around for the good and Jahi will be back with her family and friends."

Jahi’s story is tragic. My heart goes out to her young friends. But prayer will not bring her back to life and it’s simply cruel for these adults to tell the kids that it's a possibility. Jahi's body has already started to break down and decompose; her life ended on 12/12.  And too prolong this agony is wrong, I have to agree with the ACLU on this:

The school is inflicting trauma upon tragedy, bordering on mental child abuse, by suggesting that it is within the power of Jahi’s classmates to resuscitate her. What happens when reality betrays this as a false hope? Will the children blame themselves for not praying hard enough or for not praying to the right god? How long will they carry the guilt of not resurrecting their classmate as their public school implied was possible?

For brevity sake, I'll leave the legal ramifications of what took place at the school for another time.

Friends Believe Jahi McMath, "Quiet Leader," is Alive | NBC Bay Area