TikTok, socials explode after judge shuts down accounts of Aubreigh Wyatt’s grieving mom

Anita Lee
·5 min read

A judge silenced the grieving mother of Aubreigh Wyatt on social media but, in doing so, unleashed an army of TikTok creators and Facebook commenters demanding justice and saying they are speaking up on the family’s behalf.

Social media users also have shared a link to the gofundme account of Aubreigh Wyatt’s mother, former Ocean Springs elementary school teacher Heather Wyatt.

By Monday morning, the account had raised more than $76,000 for Heather Wyatt’s legal expenses. Those expenses are mounting as the parents of four girls accused of bullying Aubreigh to her grave have filed two separate lawsuits against Wyatt, further enraging a social media throng bent on #JusticeforAubreigh, as one popular hashtag reads.

A number of high-profile creators on TikTok shared Wyatt’s story after Jackson County Chancery Court Judge Mark Maples issued the emergency injunction after hours on July 1. Maples ordered Wyatt to temporarily shut down her social media accounts. The order, issued in secret but leaked to social media, said he was trying to protect the minors accused of bullying Aubreigh.

Social media users jumped right in.

A Mobile, Alabama creator with almost 13 million followers on TikTok, affectionately known as MamaTot, looked sadly at the camera as sorrowful music played and her message was highlighted: “Since Aubrieghs (sp) Mama can’t speak for her, (court ordered) I suppose we will. Right Tatertots? When their voice is silenced, use yours.”

Another TikTok creator, who goes by the handle POPE and has 84,000 followers, said in a video: “They might have shut you down for awhile but they haven’t shut us down. I will not stop talking about Aubreigh Wyatt and Heather Wyatt until justice is served. You can quiet her, but you can’t quiet all of us, and we won’t go silent.”

On Facebook, 24-year-old Alivia Boccaccio, announced she would be setting up a station near Interstate 10 to paint designs honoring Aubreigh on vehicle windows in exchange for donations that would go to Heather Wyatt’s legal fees. Boccaccio said she also had been relentlessly bullied as a child.

Alivia Boccaccio paints symbols of support on a truck’s rear window for the Wyatt family after the death by suicide of 13-year-old Aubreigh Wyatt, whose mother Heather Wyatt says bullying is responsible. Boccaccio is donating proceeds to help with legal fees for Wyatt, who is being sued by the parents of girls who others claim are Aubreigh’s bullies.

Aubreigh Wyatt’s story spreads on social media

The comments and videos were among thousands that have popped up on social media about Aubreigh Wyatt. Often, the posts or videos are fact-based, with fiction sprinkled in. For example, one TIkTok creator identified Aubreigh as being from Ocean Springs, Missouri, while countless creators have misidentified the position of authority held by the father of one of the girls accused of bullying Aubreigh.

Before Maples ordered her to shut down her social media accounts, Heather Wyatt was active mainly on TikTok. Unlike many commenters, she has not shared the names of the girls who she says bullied her daughter from the fifth grade until she died Sept. 4, after beginning eighth grade at Ocean Springs Middle School.

Instead, Wyatt has said she is trying to spread awareness of suicide and mental health. Her account had built to almost 1 million followers, with more than 40 million views on a video she had recently posted about finding notes Aubreigh left behind for each member of her family. Wyatt said she discovered the notes in a box of cards as she packed Aubreigh’s room for a move.

While Aubreigh’s story spread globally on TikTok, as Twitter user @Holleywood87 noted, other platforms are picking it up, too.

“The Aubreigh Wyatt story was pretty much contained to TikTok then those a------- sued her mama and the judge decided she had to delete all her social media accounts and not speak her dead child’s name. Now because of that ruling the story is all over every platform. Ha!”

Maples’ order shutting down Wyatt’s social media is only temporary. He will review the order at a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m., July 18, at the county courthouse in Pascagoula. Many social media commenters say they are planning to show up and are making signs. Based on the sealed court record, the judge also could decide to close the hearing to the public.

The Chancery Court lawsuit was filed by the parents of the girls accused of bullying Aubreigh. A previous judge on the case, Ashlee Cole, sealed all the records from public view, but a copy of Maples’ order found its way to TikTok and Facebook the morning after he signed it.

The four sets of parents have filed a separate lawsuit against Heather Wyatt in Jackson County Circuit Court that accuses her of slander. That case is open and viewable. Wyatt has not yet had a chance to respond to the lawsuit, which was filed July 2. The Sun Herald is not naming the parents in order to avoid identifying their minor daughters.

Heather Wyatt, center, and her children Taylor, right, and Ryker at the Wyatt’s home in Ocean Springs on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Heather and her children have been making TikToks and printing t-shirts to raise awareness for suicide prevention following the death of Heather’s daughter Aubreigh by suicide in 2023.
Heather Wyatt, center, and her children Taylor, right, and Ryker at the Wyatt’s home in Ocean Springs on Tuesday, March 12, 2024. Heather and her children have been making TikToks and printing t-shirts to raise awareness for suicide prevention following the death of Heather’s daughter Aubreigh by suicide in 2023.

Survivor of bullying pitches in for Wyatts

Alivia Boccaccio wants to help the Wyatts if she can. She was out in the heat painting vehicle windows after she got off work Sunday. Her husband, Tristen Boccaccio, stayed by her side.

“I have five suicide attempts under my belt, so this is important to me,” said Boccaccio, who grew up in St. Martin, where she still lives.

She said that she was bullied from fifth-seventh grades. She was called “Tree Hair” because of her thick, curly hair, along with other derogatory nicknames. Girls she thought were her friends left her out of sleepovers and other activities, giggling as they discussed their plans.

“I would get left out,” she said. “I would get laughed at.”

She started self-harming at age 13 and attempted suicide beginning at the same age and throughout her teens. She’s 24 years old now but still has self-esteem and body-image issues, she said.

“I wish I had known that the only value comes from within,” she said. The bullies opinions, she now sees, don’t matter.

Shannon Braender grew up in Ocean Springs but now lives in Mobile. She stopped to get her windows painted for Aubreigh while working her delivery job in Ocean Springs.

She said the judge started down a “slippery slope” when he silenced Heather Wyatt on social media. “When you talk about your civil liberties — freedom of speech — I don’t know how you could silence somebody like that.”

Alyssa Galeos and her daughter Pricilla, 6, stopped outside Ocean Springs to have their car window painted so they could show support for Heather Wyatt, whose daughter died by suicide after being bullied.
Alyssa Galeos and her daughter Pricilla, 6, stopped outside Ocean Springs to have their car window painted so they could show support for Heather Wyatt, whose daughter died by suicide after being bullied.
Vehicles line up Sunday so the drivers can have signs of support painted on their windows for the family of Aubreigh Wyatt, a 13-year-old Ocean Springs Middle School student who died by suicide and whose mother Heather Wyatt says she was bullied from fifth grade until her death as an eighth-grader.
Vehicles line up Sunday so the drivers can have signs of support painted on their windows for the family of Aubreigh Wyatt, a 13-year-old Ocean Springs Middle School student who died by suicide and whose mother Heather Wyatt says she was bullied from fifth grade until her death as an eighth-grader.