NOTE: This article contains details that might be triggering for some readers. Please read at your own discretion.
Four students have been charged and a school district superintendent has resigned after a teenage girl died by suicide. Just prior to her death, she was the victim of a violent beating on school grounds.
Adriana Kuch, 14, was found dead at home by her father on Feb. 3, two days after she was filmed being attacked by fellow students in the hallway of Central Regional High School in New Jersey. Video of the assault was circulated on social media, and Kuch’s father believes the video was posted to “make fun of her online.”
One juvenile was charged with aggravated assault, two were charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault and one was charged with harassment, prosecutors in Ocean County said Saturday.
In an interview with WNBC-TV, Kuch’s father, Michael Kuch, said his daughter was hit repeatedly with a 20-ounce (0.56 litre) water bottle during the attack. She was taken to the school’s nurse, not the hospital, even though her father says she blacked out and had bruising all over her body.
Michael Kuch says he believes bullying drove his daughter to suicide, and at least one of the students involved “had been threatening my daughter online.” He’s especially angry with the school’s decision to not call the police after the attack.
“A kid is assaulted with a weapon and their policy is not to call the police or file a report,” Michael Kuch told WNBC.
The school district superintendent, Triantafillos Parlapanides, said Friday that police were notified and “teachers and safety officers intervened” in the fight.
On Feb. 8, more than 200 students at Central Regional High walked out of class in protest, calling for action and drawing attention to what they say is a pattern of bullying at the school that is being ignored by administrators.
Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer attended the protest and spoke with the student organizers about their grievances. He was back at the school on Friday to speak with students again and, the next day, charges were filed in connection with the attack on Adriana Kuch.
Superintendent Parlapanides, meanwhile, wrote in a letter to parents that the Feb. 8 protest interfered with “the learning process” and future “rallies” would need prior approval from the administration.
On Saturday, just one day after Adriana Kuch’s funeral, Parlapanides resigned.
The school district has not provided anymore details about the superintendent’s resignation but said it is “evaluating all current and past allegations of bullying.”
Billhimer said he discussed ways to improve the district’s response to school “incidents” during a meeting on Saturday with Parlapanides.
“I also shared some suggestions regarding staff changes as well as programming and services to respond to the needs of the students,” Billhimer wrote.
In an online obituary, Adriana Kuch is remembered as an outdoorsy animal lover.
“She adored all animals, she helped children with special needs, she loved jogging with her brothers and was a true nature lover,” the tribute reads. “Adriana also enjoyed her walks in the woods, skateboarding, riding dune buggies and dirt bikes.”
‘Culture of violence’ at Central Regional High
Adriana Kuch’s death has since garnered international attention, and news outlets NBC and CNN discovered that an eerily similar bullying incident took place at Central Regional High just one year ago.
An October lawsuit claims that a different 14-year-old girl was attacked by students at the same high school in January 2022. The attack was also filmed and later posted to social media.
The student started receiving threatening messages in December 2021, the lawsuit claims, and one of the teenagers who allegedly later assaulted her wrote to the student that they were going to “jump her.”
According to the student’s mother, Rachael O’Dea, her daughter went to school administrators about the threat but “they did nothing.”
“She showed them the messages. She gave them the information and they did nothing,” O’Dea told NBC News. “Then they went on Christmas break and in January the girls followed up on their promise and jumped her from behind.”
O’Dea told CNN that the attackers hit her daughter around 30 times on the head, neck and back, and she suffered a serious concussion. She says her daughter received counselling for PTSD and now goes to a school in a different district.
“She cried out for help just to be ignored. There are a lot of situations where you hear kids don’t want to say anything about bullying in case there’s any retaliation and here my daughter is, she was brave enough to reach out to people who are supposed to keep her safe and they failed her,” O’Dea said.
She claims her daughter’s attackers were only suspended for 10 days and that police weren’t called following the assault.
A lawyer representing the O’Dea family said Central Regional High “has a culture of violence that’s been ongoing for quite some time.”
“The school is clearly not taking students seriously when they report threats of violence and the violence continues, now it’s led to a young girl taking her life,” Jonathan Ettman said.
The Central Regional School District and the high school’s principal and vice principal are named as defendants in the lawsuit. A lawyer representing the defendants denied the allegations in a February filing.
— With files from The Associated Press
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If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, resources are available. In case of an emergency, please call 911 for immediate help. For a directory of support services in your area, visit the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention. Learn more about how to help someone in crisis.