Americans were horrified last week to learn that a 14-year-old New Jersey girl killed herself after suffering a savage beating at the hands of fellow students.
According to the New York Post, Central Regional High School student Adriana Kuch was found dead on February 3. Her attack took place two days earlier and was recorded by one of the assailants.
Four girls have been charged
This is a whole new level of bullying. I’m glad the four teenage girls where charged for the beating of Adriana Kuch (14), who committed suicide two days later after this video was spread online. One is now charged with aggravated assault, and could face court as an adult, one… https://t.co/6tO4s8Xb0n pic.twitter.com/4QlwldDBtS
— DeL2000 (@DeL2000) February 11, 2023
Michael Kuch is the victim’s father, and he told ABC 7 that the bullies “think it’s fun to attack people and take videos and post them.”
He also had harsh words for school officials, saying, “My daughter actually blacks out and they don’t call an ambulance, they take her to the nurse’s office.”
Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced on Friday that one girl has been charged with aggravated assault, two have been charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, and another has been charged with harassment. Their names have not been made public.
Victim once saved child from drowning
Michael Kuch told the Post that one of the bullies has continued to put up Snapchat videos mocking his daughter’s death.
The Post reported that Kuch became a neighborhood hero last August after she saved an 8-year-old girl from drowning at a pool.
Meanwhile, the superintendent of Kuch’s school has made a series of comments that many have regarded as outrageous.
According to the Post, Triantafillos Parlapanides defended the school’s policy of not contacting authorities following the attack on Kuch, saying that doing so would result in her assailants being hit with “a double whammy” as they were also being suspended.
Superintendent blames parents’ divorce
What’s more, Parlapanides released a statement in which he blamed Kuch’s suicide on her parent’s divorce along with her mother’s suicide.
“Her father was having an affair at the end of her 6th grade. Her father married the woman he had an affair with and moved her into the house,” he declared.
“We tried helping her several times but mother’s suicide was a major reason she started making poor choices,” the education official insisted.
Central Regional School District announced that Parlapanides resigned following an emergency board meeting on Saturday.