SAN DIEGO - A little girl who said classmates refused to accept her birthday invitations wants to host a community party for bullied children.
Summer Michaelson told 10News her 7-year-old daughter Sienna went to school last week with dozens of birthday invitations to her upcoming party at Hilton Head Park in Rancho San Diego.
"I was trying to hand out envelopes. I was going to have a 'Shopkins' birthday party, but nobody would take them," said Sienna.
Sienna said she was trying to hand them out before school started.
Michaelson said she caught her daughter throwing out the invitations once she got home.
"Why are you throwing them away? Why do you still have them? She broke down in tears and she told me she tried passing them out to a couple of students and they wouldn't take them," said Michaelson.
Michaelson said kids often tease her daughter for the way she talks. Sienna has dental spacers in her mouth to keep her teeth straight, and she said other children tell her she speaks "weird."
"They keep my teeth straight and it's kind of hard to say stuff, like shower. I say it like sour," said Sienna.
Michaelson said her daughter has been bullied for the last year. She took to Facebook to share her concerns, and she said the response was overwhelming.
"Just messages of love and, you know, we've been through the same thing, my six-year old, my eight-year old, my 20-year old," said Michaelson.
She said she told Sienna they'd still throw a party, but her little girl had a better idea.
"I want to throw them a big party about all the kids who are bullied so they can make new friends," said Sienna.
"If all of these kids are being bullied, why should it be about her? Let's have a party for everyone," said Michaelson.
Michaelson also started a new Facebook page called "Sienna's Voice."
"Let's start a way for people to have a support system so I don't get messages from people who say my daughter was bullied and no one helped me," said Michaelson, who added she felt helpless when her daughter came home in tears. "Let's make it a situation where we can lean on each other and we can get our kids together and they can find strength in each other as well."
Michaelson said the Cajon Valley Union School District granted her request to have her daughter change schools. She declined naming the school where she said the bullying took place, but she was pleased with how the district handled it.
"There were no excuses, there was no runaround; she was by far the most amazing person in this process. She was able to get my daughter protected, to get her transferred to a different school that we chose at our request," Michaelson said.
She's still planning to have a party, but dates and details are still being worked out. In the meantime, she's asking the community to send her daughter birthday cards.
Cards can be sent to Sienna at PO Box 2866 Spring Valley, CA 91979.
The deputy superintendent for the Cajon Valley Union School District said the district is looking into the allegations of bullying.
