‘Embarrassed’ Adriana Kuch, 14, got taunting texts from her bullies a day before she killed herself
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
BERKELEY, NEW JERSEY: Adriana Kuch, a 14-year-old girl from New Jersey, died by suicide after she received taunting text messages from bullies who attacked her in the school hallway. According to her father, Michael Kuch, the 14-year-old girl who was "humiliated," killed herself at her Bayville home on February 3.
Just hours before her death, the teenager was taunted with texts from one of the bullies, a girl who shot the bullying incident making fun of her in the message for being "whooped" and "dripping" blood on the hallway floor. Kuch was left with a severely injured leg and a bruised lip in the attack. Four girls who bullied Kuch have now been charged, the Daily Mail reported. The identity of the teenage girls cannot be disclosed as they are all minors.
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Why was Adriana Kuch bullied?
The attack was initiated by one of the four girls who felt jealous of Kuch being friends with another girl, according to her father Michael. He said that she arrived at the decision to kill herself after she felt "embarrassed" about the video of the attack that fast-spread on Snapchat and TikTok.
Michael said, "She was so embarrassed that they jumped her. She would say, 'I don't want to be made fun of.' It was like she was attacked twice." He also added that "It used to be you'd go to school, get bullied, and then you left. But now you come home and you keep getting bullied - they still keep picking at you home."
Victim's father wants school staff to be fired
Michael who has served in the US Army for 22 years explained that the school took no action during or after the attack and he wants all the school staff to be fired. In his post on Facebook, Michael said that Berkeley Township's Central Regional High School failed to handle the situation and they did not inform the police about the incident.
He said, "A kid is assaulted with a weapon and their policy is not to call the police or file a report," and recalled that he took Adriana "covered in blood" to the local police station. "I can't begin to tell you how angry I am at the school, at the police department... if those videos hadn't been posted, these girls would have ended up with a one-day suspension or in no trouble at all," he said and added that "The [school] has done nothing. They should not be in charge of our children's safety."
As the Kuch family is preparing to bury their daughter, they are "sickened" by the school superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides defending himself as he stated, "There are two sides to every story." Parlapanides made the statement in a post he shared on social media on Thursday, February 9, days after the death of Adriana.
Adriana's conversation with bullies a day before her death
Adriana's father revealed that she was online the day before she died and was texting with her boyfriend. He also revealed that one of the bullies sent Adriana a direct message to taunt her about the bullying video and the attack. Michael said that the girl made fun of his daughter saying that she got her "a** whooped" and also for "dripping" blood, according to Daily Mail.
Michael disclosed that his daughter's last message was sent at 10.46 pm to her boyfriend and at 5.00 am, Adriana's stepmother found her dead in her bedroom. "I was in the kitchen, my wife went downstairs and I just heard her screaming "no," as the stepmother went to her room to wake her up and found that she killed herself. "I ran downstairs and see immediately that her bed was empty. At first, I thought, 'did she sneak out to her boyfriend's?' That's when I turned left, and I saw her there, in the closet," he said. "She had on the same clothes that she'd been wearing the day before. A brown jacket I had just bought her. She loved that jacket," Michael recalled the incident.
The late teenager's funeral will be held tomorrow, February 11. Three out of the four teenage girls who bullied Adriana have now been charged with assault and the fourth one has been charged with disorderly conduct.