Heather Wyatt supporters stood in solidarity outside MS Coast courthouse. ‘My heart hurts’

Pink shirts filled the parking lot. Mothers outraged over the death of Aubreigh Wyatt stood on hot pavement across from the Jackson County Chancery Courthouse. Women and men, young and old, held signs, filmed videos, or just stood, eyes and cameras locked on the building’s doors, because they said it was important.

“It’s a big deal,” said Liz Fields, who came from Hurley with her grandson.

“It broke my heart,” said Amy Greer, a mother from Pascagoula. “What if that had been my child?”

Nearly a year after 13-year-old Aubreigh Wyatt died by suicide, dozens gathered on Thursday outside the courthouse in Pascagoula to support her mother and wait, nervous but eager, for news from the judge inside.

The judge, Mark Maples, was deciding whether to allow Heather Wyatt, Aubreigh’s mother, to use the social media accounts where for months, she told her daughter’s story and earned nearly a million followers on TikTok.

He reinstated her accounts on Thursday. Behind the courthouse doors, he asked that Child Protective Services investigate the safety of Wyatt’s son and daughter and four girls accused of bullying Aubreigh. The case had been sealed to protect the minors, and on Thursday, Maples made it public.

But the crowd did not know that yet. About 75 people sweating in the heat cheered when Heather Wyatt walked from the courthouse in a black dress and hugged her attorney.

The crowd started chanting her daughter’s name. Wyatt, teary-eyed but smiling, yelled “Thank you.”

“We stand with you,” someone in the crowd yelled. “You’re not alone.” Wyatt walked away with her family.

Wyatt says her daughter died because of bullies. She has not named them. But others have posted the accused girls’ names and smiling photos. Misinformation laced the story as it spread across the Mississippi Coast, then nationwide through viral TikTok videos and outraged posts. The girls faced threats and online fury. Their parents sued.

Maples issued the emergency order July 1 that shut down Heather Wyatt’s social media accounts, and someone leaked the document online. Furious over Maples’ order, hundreds used Facebook and TikTok to share Heather Wyatt’s story for her. And many planned and vowed on social media to protest outside the courthouse.

That crowd, galvanized by the story’s reach on social media, said they wanted to support the Wyatt family. They came from Ocean Springs and Jackson County, from across the Mississippi Coast and country.

They faced heavy security. Sniper teams stood on the roof of the old Jackson County courthouse and the county office building. Jackson County Sheriff’s deputies stood around the building and about a dozen officers clustered across from the protesters by the courthouse doors.

Some expressed annoyance with the snipers. But throughout the afternoon, most paid them no mind.

Parents are “sick and tired of hearing their children cry themselves to sleep,” said Lora Jane, a nurse, therapist, and TikTok personality who drove 12-and-a-half hours from Ohio to stand outside the courthouse on Thursday. She said she learned about Wyatt through TikTok, then started creating her own videos for more than 95,000 followers on her account, @gracefullybroken207. “It was just not OK,” she said. “I was very upset and very angry.”

Others derided Maples’ order that temporarily forced Heather Wyatt from social media, and accused the online vitriol itself -- which they said had only worsened a crisis over bullying in South Mississippi schools.

“We’ve just got to stop it, this bullying,” said Patsy Poole, the grandmother of Aubreigh’s sister. “Your child should not be allowed on social media until they’re of age.”

The crowd stayed trained on the courthouse, filming. Passing cars honked support. Women walked through the crowd, speaking into their cell phone video cameras.

Some said they could barely take the tragedy of it all.

“I might cry,” said Jessica Stanley, a Mississippi Coast mother who sat with four of her young children in a rare spot of shade. “I’ve laid in bed at night and thought about this.”

Wynonna Harris, from Vancleave, said she was also bullied in school. “I just think people aren’t nice enough,” she said, softly. She paused. “It’s emotional. I don’t have words. My heart hurts for her and her family.”

Thursday was only the latest time supporters gathered for Wyatt. This month, cars lined up in an Ocean Springs parking lot to have their windows painted with messages of solidarity in pink ink. Several students walked out of Ocean Springs High School in April in protest against bullying they said was still rampant.

Fields, the grandmother from Hurley, wore a bedazzled pink shirt. Her grandson, a young boy who she said had also been bullied, swirled around around her with a toy plane. She hugged him.

When a child is bullied at school, she said, “you don’t ignore that. You do something about it.

“That’s what we’re here for.”

Staff writer Anita Lee contri buted reporting.