CHARLOTTE, N.C.--The locker where Na'Jhae Parker would have put her textbooks was covered with pictures, signs, and letters to a murdered friend Wednesday. "We love Na'Jhae Faith Parker!" one read. "RIP Na'Jhae," another said.
"Even though this is her first year here, she's just made a ton of friends and is extremely well-liked by students and certainly by her teachers," McClintock Principal Pam Espinosa said. She and other staff spent the day counseling students, alongside extra counselors brought in by Charlotte Mecklenburg Schools.
"By the time word actually got out to the kids, we had counselors here," Espinosa said.
Police say Na'Jhae's father 33-year-old Kenneth Chapman stabbed her to death about two weeks ago. He also suffocated her 1-year-old sister and left their bodies in an upstairs bedroom of the family's apartment on Providence Square Drive. He had killed their mother, Nateesa Chapman, in another apartment on Via Romano Drive a day earlier.
After two weeks of hiding his crimes, he shot himself when police came to investigate early Monday morning. Two surviving children are living with family.
Espinosa said Na'Jhae's mother and stepfather were involved in the school. They attended parent teacher conferences and took a parenting class early in the school year.
Espinosa said when Na'Jhae did not show up at school, a counselor called her home. Her stepfather said she was ill and might be absent for some time. A nurse followed up a week later.
Dr. Peter Gorman says protocol was followed correctly.
"You feel like your first job is to keep your children safe and then when something happens, you examine 'Is there anything I could have done,' Espinosa said. "No matter what it is you still feel a level of responsibility."
