14 Year-Old Tayloni Mazyck, Paralyzed in Brooklyn Gang Shooting, Inspires at her Middle School Graduation

Tayloni Mazyck getting her diploma at her graduation from New Design Middle School .She was paralyzed in 2013 when hit by a bullet during a gang war shoot out in Brooklyn. (MICHAEL SCHWARTZ/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

article by Max Gelman via nydailynews.com

A gang violence survivor has become an inspiration to many — and she’s just 14.Tayloni Mazyck graduated from New Design Middle School in Harlem on Monday, three years after being paralyzed by crossfire outside her Brooklyn home. Tayloni made the school’s Merit Roll and addressed a packed auditorium as the class student speaker.

“I won today. Today I am a winner,” she said to a standing ovation. “My mishap does not define me. It does not limit me, it just helps the fighter in me stay alive.”

Tayloni Mazyck has her diploma and is with her parents, Robert Mazyck (l) and her mother Priscilla Samuels. (MICHAEL SCHWARTZ/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

On May 31, 2013, Tayloni was waiting for her aunt outside her Bedford-Stuyvesant building when a stray bullet hit her chin and lodged in her spine. In that instant, Tayloni, just 11, lost the use of her legs.
Tayloni’s parents said she had to overcome shyness. Now, only a few years later, they see huge improvements in her overall demeanor and she is much more outgoing.
“She used to like to stay in the house, she was scared to go out,” Mazyck’s mother, Priscilla Samuel, told The News. “Now she’s going out with friends and everything. That’s the biggest change.”
Dad Robert Mazyck said Tayloni’s prom was an especially heartwarming moment and a milestone. “She had on a white dress and it covered the chair like a big Cinderella dress, like a chariot,” the proud dad said. “It was like when she was moving she was floating. It looked like a cloud.”
Tayloni, who hopes to become a malpractice lawyer, will attend the High School for Law, Advocacy and Community Justice in the fall.

14 Year-Old Tayloni Mazyck, Paralyzed in Brooklyn Gang Shooting, Inspires at her Middle School Graduation

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14 Year-Old Tayloni Mazyck, Paralyzed in Brooklyn Gang Shooting, Inspires at her Middle School Graduation

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