12/20/2025
⚠️ Trigger Warning: I am heartbroken to learn that one of my former students from my time at Hiram High School has passed away.
She and her brother often came by my classroom. She wasn’t in my engineering classes, but she was in my homeroom and always arrived with the brightest smile. Our conversations were light and warm. As the youngest teacher at the school then, I think she saw me as a safe space. I helped her brother prepare a senior portfolio when he wanted to become an architect, and I stayed in touch with several students after graduation. Eventually, we lost contact.
What breaks me is understanding how this happened.
She was neurodivergent and disabled, and people need to understand how predators target individuals like her. This was not random. Vulnerability is sniffed out, exploited under the guise of friendship, and then discarded in the most unimaginable way.
She trusted people who charged her money for access, treated her as entertainment, exploited her trauma, and deliberately humiliated her. These were not teenagers. These were grown women who envied her.
They envied her because she was thriving. She was in law school. She was brilliant, capable, and full of promise. Instead of protecting her, they mocked her, dehumanized her, and encouraged her self-destruction. What she endured was psychological torture, not bullying.
This unfolded publicly on TikTok, in a space called “MessyTok.” Even after witnessing her death on livestream, these individuals continue to profit, laugh, and double down.
Online abuse is not just a teen issue. It is often adults targeting younger, neurodivergent, and disabled people.
When I was asked why I wanted to teach, I said, “Sometimes a teacher is the most stable person in a child’s life.” That truth hurts today.
Riziki sought guidance, belonging, and kindness, and instead encountered cruelty. When she was with us in school, she was safe. Outside those doors, she entered a world that failed her.
This is why social media must be regulated. I say get rid of it altogether.
Rest in peace, Riziki.
You were intelligent.
You were capable.
You were seen.
You were loved.
Police are investigating TikToker Riziki Ilenre's death after numerous reports surfaced that she died by su***de.
