N.J. faculty district the place Adriana Kuch was attacked has a ‘tradition of violence,’ neighborhood members say

BAYVILLE, N.J.— The New Jersey faculty district the place 14-year-old Adriana Kuch was attacked earlier than she died by suicide days later has a “tradition of violence,” based on members of the neighborhood.

Mother and father, lecturers and college students of Central Regional Faculty District say directors have a historical past of ignoring violence inside the faculties that dates again nearly 20 years.

Kuch was discovered useless in her Bayville dwelling two days after a Feb. 1 assault at Central Regional Excessive Faculty. The assault was recorded, and the 4 college students concerned within the assault have been suspended and charged, officers stated.

At the least 4 college students advised NBC Information that directors are dismissive when college students come ahead with bullying claims.

“There’s been a variety of rage and anger. They didn’t do something,” stated sophomore Sarah Gibson, 15. “That’s for everyone, not simply Adriana. I, myself, have filed about seven bullying or harassment studies and nothing’s been finished.”

Gibson stated college students can file a report or a grievance towards bullying by going to their faculty’s fundamental workplace, assistant principal’s workplace or steerage counselor and filling out a sheet of paper describing the incident with particulars.

“And so they’ll say, ‘Alright give that to me and we’ll deal with it,'” Gibson stated. “The issue didn’t cease. It’s only for present just about.”

The college district and the board of schooling didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark.

A 14-year-old freshman who attends the highschool and was associates with Kuch for the reason that fourth grade stated bullying is an “each day prevalence” inside the district and that he has been bullied himself at Central Regional, the place he says he tries to put low so he gained’t be focused.

“A child tried preventing me simply because I checked out him. I don’t actually get entangled,” he stated.

The directors, he stated, “simply say it’s not your small business or that they’ve already gotten it taken care of.”

“I’m disgusted,” he added. “They need to be doing every little thing they’ll.”

What occurred to Adriana Kuch at Central Regional Excessive Faculty was not an remoted incident, the scholars stated.

A lady who was the identical age as Kuch on the time was additionally attacked in a hallway at the highschool by three ladies in January 2022, based on her mum or dad, Racheal O’Dea.

O’Dea stated her daughter had been receiving threats on-line and in individual from the ladies who attacked her previous to the incident, and advised the college’s principal and assistant principal about it in December 2021.

“She confirmed them the messages. She gave them the knowledge and so they did nothing,” O’Dea advised NBC Information. “Then they went on Christmas break and in January the ladies adopted up on their promise and jumped her from behind.”

Two ladies assaulted O’Dea’s daughter on Jan. 10, 2022 by punching her within the head, neck and again. One other lady recorded the assault, which was shared on social media, O’Dea stated.

“She cried out for assist simply to be ignored. There are a variety of conditions the place you hear youngsters don’t wish to say something about bullying in case there’s any retaliation and right here my daughter is, she was courageous sufficient to succeed in out to people who find themselves supposed to maintain her protected and so they failed her,” O’Dea stated.

The ladies chargeable for her daughter’s assault have been suspended for 10 days and confronted no additional punishment, O’Dea stated. Her daughter, now 15, attends faculty at a distinct district.

In October 2022, O’Dea filed a lawsuit towards the Central Regional Faculty District, the board of schooling, the highschool’s principal and the assistant principal.

“This faculty has a tradition of violence that’s been ongoing for fairly a while,” O’Dea’s legal professional, Jonathan Ettman, stated. “The college is clearly not taking college students significantly after they report threats of violence and the violence continues, now it’s led to a younger lady taking her life.”

Central Regional Excessive Faculty Principal Irene Marousis and Assistant Principal Darryl Heale declined to touch upon the lawsuit, Kuch’s case and claims that studies of violence have been ignored.

Daniel Keiser, who taught at the highschool for over 20 years earlier than leaving in 2007, stated the violence he is listening to about is nothing new.

“There have been days the place I’d break up three fights earlier than dwelling room even began,” Keiser wrote in a Fb publish revealed Saturday. “As a instructor there and a mum or dad there who handled intense bullying, we might usually plead with administration to get issues beneath management and solely one in every of them ever tried. They have been infamous for brushing issues beneath the carpet. So it appears they fostered a local weather like this over a few years.”

The assault on Adriana Kuch at Central Regional Excessive Faculty garnered nationwide consideration after video of it was posted on-line.

On Saturday, simply someday after funeral companies have been held for {the teenager}, the college district’s superintendent, Triantafillos Parlapanides, resigned.

Parlapanides had prompt in interviews with information retailers, together with the Every day Mail, that Kuch used medicine and that her father had refused the district’s gives to assist.

Danielle Ledesma, 17, stated she was bullied however by no means reported it to the college as a result of she felt nothing could be finished about it.

Ledesma, a highschool senior, didn’t know Kuch, however stated she was devastated to be taught of her suicide.

“Once I came upon that somebody from this faculty considered that and acted upon it, it made me notice how a lot college students assume the identical factor,” she stated.

“If everyone who had been bullied acted upon their ideas, there wouldn’t be anyone in Bayville,” she added. “All people could be gone.”