Who is Olivia O’Dea? Ex-CRHS student reveals she was attacked and bullied at school before Adriana Kuch's death
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
BERKELEY, NEW JERSEY: An ex-student of Berkeley Township's Central Regional High School (CRHS) where 14-year-old Adriana Kuch who died by suicide after she was allegedly bullied on February 1, opened up on her own "humiliating" experience at the school. Sophomore Olivia O'Dea's family is set to move ahead with legal action against the school.
The teenager shared that in January 2022, two fellow students attacked her at the New Jersey school and footage of the assault was circulated online. O'Dea's experience at the school is quite similar to the bullying and physical assault experiences of Kuch who was viciously beaten in a school hallway and the video of the attack was shared online.
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‘Embarrassed’ Adriana Kuch, 14, got taunting texts from her bullies a day before she killed herself
Who is Olivia O’Dea?
Olivia O'Dea, a teenager who was a former student of Central Regional High School shared her disturbing personal experiences and the school's bullying culture while talking with CBS2. Recalling the troubling phase of her life, O'Dea said, “I went through a physical assault in the same school when I was a freshman, and the humiliation, the bullying.”
Following the tragic death of Kuch, students protest against the district's inability to handle the bullying situation that led to the teenager's suicide. Criticism from the victim's family and the students of the school's failure resulted in the abrupt resignation of Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides. The four girls who are allegedly involved in the bullying incident have been charged with aggravated assault and various other offenses. The identity of the teenage girls involved in this harrowing incident cannot be disclosed as they are all minors.
Olivia O'Dea's mother filed lawsuit against CRHS
Talking to NJ Advance Media, O'Dea's mother Rachael O'Dea said, “It’s a travesty that [the bullying is] continuing,” while she spoke about the death of Kuch. She claimed that the district did not report the authorities when Olivia was attacked and for that matter she had to remove her daughter from CRHS. On behalf of her daughter, she filed a lawsuit against the school in October 2022. She further said, “There’s no accountability [from the school], there are no changes being made. This isn’t something new to them".
According to O'Dea's lawsuit, she was allegedly threatened via text by another student and was later attacked in the school hallway, the NJ Advance Media reported. The civil suit also claimed that O'Dea shared the threatening text with a teacher, administrators, and a guidance counselor. However, none of the authorities took any action regarding the concern addressed.
O'Dea's lawyer and CRHS former teacher spoke of administrators' failure
Jonathan Ettman, O'Deas' lawyer talked about the bullying culture and told the news outlet that, “This goes on in other districts. But in this particular school, there’s a real pattern of events like this, and this should never have happened with this young girl.”
In a Facebook post, the school's former teacher Daniel Keiser wrote, “As a teacher there and a parent there who dealt with intense bullying, we would often plead with the administration to get things under control, and only one of them ever tried," and added, “They were notorious for brushing things under the carpet.”
Talking to CBS, Ettman highlighted the misuse of social media that adds more to the bullying culture and said, “Now we’re in a time when every single thing is videotaped and put online. It has changed the face of bullying.”
Though the officials of Berkeley Township have reportedly affirmed to take strict actions in cases of bullying, Michael Kuch, father of Adriana Kuch wants the "entire administration gone," and her sister-in-law Jennifer Ferro stated, "We just want the school to start changing and taking accountability," reported New York Post.