Friends say Lexi Lopez took her own life after being bullied

RACINE (WITI) -- The death of a 14-year-old girl is bringing many issues to the forefront in Racine. 14-year-old Lexi Lopez took her own life over the weekend -- and now, kids at Racine's Horlick High School are mobilizing to start "The Lexi Project" -- meant to tackle the issues of bullying and sexuality.

A memorial of stuffed animals and balloons marks the corner where Lexi Lopez lived. It also marks her death.

The Horlick High School killed herself on Sunday, December 15 at the age of 14.

"There really wasn't a reason not to like her. She loved music. She was very artistic," Lopez' best friend, Destiny Zaehler said.

The pain Lopez faced, according to those who knew her, are the challenges of being a non-conformist -- a transgender girl who sometimes preferred to be called Landon.

Friends say she was a victim of bullying.

"A few times she would come up to me and tell me that people were calling her names and it was upsetting her," Zaehler said.

The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender organization in Racine says they will be working with Horlick High School on the issues of sexuality and bullying.

"On Thursday I am going to speak. I am bringing the Kenosha County Suicide Coalition director and myself are going to go speak to kind of debrief with the kids about what this means and answer some of their questions. I'm sure there's a lot of issues and questions that kids have," Jolie McKenna with LGBT Racine said.

"In light of this tragic situation, the principal is working with her students, and we have some student leadership groups that have really stepped up and want to do something in regards to bullying," Stacy Tapp with Racine Unified Schools said.

The Racine School District says they were not aware of any issues of bullying against Lopez. No incident reports were filed.