A 14-year-old girl from New Jersey took her own life after a disturbing video of girls viciously beating her up in the high school’s hallway circulated online. Now, her distraught father says that the school ignored extensive and repeated bullying.
Adriana Kuch, a student at Central Regional High School, was found dead on Feb. 3 at her home two days after the shocking video surfaced.
The disturbing video shows Adriana and her boyfriend walking down the hallway of the local public high school when a student walks up and starts beating her in the face with a water bottle. Adriana falls to the ground, where she is repeatedly kicked and punched by a group of students. Cheering is heard from the student who took the shocking video. About 30 seconds into the attack, two school workers interrupted the ambush. There seems to be no precipitating factor for the beating.
Following the attack on Feb.1, Adriana sustained severe bruising on her legs and face. Michael Kuch, Adriana’s father, shocked at the bullying incident, took his 14-year-old teen to the local police station to file a report about the incident.
Michael Kuch also said his daughter showed him videos of people taunting her and threatening her on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat following the attack. Adriana reportedly faced months of bullying from fellow classmates at the local high school. “They think it’s fun to attack people and take videos and post them,” Kuch said. “Getting hit with a water bottle didn’t hurt Adriana, what hurt her was the embarrassment and humiliation, they just kept coming at her.”
Michael stated that, despite reaching out to school faculty, “no action was taken by anyone,” following the incident. Just two days later, family members found Adriana dead in her New Jersey home.
An angry Michael said, “I blame the girls and the school and the cops. I want everyone to know what happened to her, I want justice, as much attention, so they can’t ignore it.”
“If the school had contacted the police, filed a report, and conducted an investigation, these videos could have been discovered immediately.”
Michael stated that Adriana is not the first student at Central Regional High School who has faced extensive physical abuse and cyberbullying on school grounds. On his public Facebook page, Michael shared videos from other parents whose children have faced bullying without school administration stepping in.
“The more I continue to see, the more I want to fight for all kids against schools like this.” Michael said. “Complete incompetence from top to bottom.”
As of Thursday evening, three students who were involved in the video incident were charged with third-degree felony assault and a fourth with disorderly conduct. All four students involved in the attack have been expelled from the local high school. Students marched outside Central Regional High School for two and half hours on Wednesday in support of the Kuch family. What they wanted, they said, was “Justice Now”
School officials have explained why no one called police. “We normally just suspend. If a parent wants to press charges they can with the police. But we’re not going to double-whammy a kid where they are suspended and then police charges as well,” School Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides said. In the wake of this incident some former students have taken to Youtube and Facebook to relate past incidents of similar gross negligence on the part of school administration.
