A potato effigy of an employee was hung and allowed to remain, according to a former town employee, but officials say every letter of the law has been followed. 

BERNE — On Jan. 12, Mackenzie Dunnells, who is 12, swallowed bleach from a bottle in her home in Berne; she wanted to die.

“I got this overwhelming feeling, thinking about all that has been done for five years at school and no one listened to me,” said Mackenzie.

"It makes me feel like nothing," says a 12-year-old of being bullied at school for years. Her hurt was made worse when, she and her mother say, it was ignored by school leaders.

Defense attorney Paul Van Ryn complained that a witness changed her story so he wasn't able to prepare for the trial held in Berne on June 15.