It was a beating that lasted less than a minute, but the family of Ocean County teen, Adriana Kuch, reportedly says it was long enough to drive her to suicide. Now the students who allegedly bullied her are facing criminal charges and a school administrator is out of a job.
This story keeps revealing new and potentially damaging information against now-former school Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides. A former teacher and students at Ocean County’s Central Regional High School are protesting on the streets and on social media. They’re claiming the administration ignored bullying and harassment long before Adriana Kuch tragically took her own life.
The caught-on-camera assault of the 14-year-old high school freshman shows several people brutally attacking the girl on February 1st. Kuch was taken to the school nurse afterward, but the school never called the police
Amid recent protests outside central regional high, a former teacher and student are taking to social media with claims of longstanding indifference at the hands of administrators. Daniel Keiser posted in part, “I was a teacher there for over 2 decades and this is not new.” “They fostered a climate like this over many years.”
Another teen from the school claims in a lawsuit filed in October that she was bullied and attacked in yet another caught-on-camera assault and the district did nothing. The information surfaced along the reports that the Ocean County Prosecutor met with school officials last week to discuss the failure to report the attack on Kuch. Since then, the head of the Central Regional School District, Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides, resigned from his 190 thousand dollar-a-year job. A letter to parents was posted to the district website after an emergency school board meeting reads that the district is “evaluating all current and past allegations of bullying” and would undergo “an independent assessment” of its anti-bullying policies.
In what’s been headlined as an “Outrageous Smear” by the Daily Mail, Parlapanides revealed to the outlet personal Kuch family information, claiming Adriana had a drug problem while alleging her father had an affair that caused Adriana’s mother to commit suicide when the girl was younger. A Go Fund Me has raised tens of thousands of dollars for the family, and in a video shared by Adriana’s aunt she spoke out against the school district.
While some parties seek to shift blame, a family and community are left grappling with the loss of a young life. Four teens are facing criminal charges in connection with the assault.
