Jack Reid: New Jersey boarding school admits failure to protect student who took his life after being accused of rape
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP, NEW JERSEY: A year after Jack Reid, a 17-year-old student at Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, took his own life on April 30, 2022, after being bullied by other students, the boarding school admitted its failure to protect the student. It stated, "The School acknowledges that bullying and unkind behavior, and actions taken or not taken by the School, likely contributed to Jack’s death."
The statement by the Lawrenceville officials posted on Sunday morning on the school’s website read, “We experienced the tragic loss of Jack Reid on April 30, 2022 and through great sorrow, came together in meaningful ways as a community. The Special Oversight Committee of the Board of Trustees conducted a five-month review of the circumstances surrounding Jack’s death by suicide, and produced a summary of findings that were shared with the community in December 2022." It further stated, "In the ensuing months, the School undertook an investigation of the circumstances leading up to Jack's death. Reflecting on those findings, and discussing them with the Reid family, we acknowledge that more should have been done to protect Jack. Today's multi-faceted settlement with the Reids is aimed at honoring Jack, taking appropriate responsibility, and instituting meaningful changes that will support the School’s aspirations of becoming a model for anti-bullying and student mental health."
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The school officials then listed out four broad lines of action -- "training and educational programs, House culture and healthy socializing, the structure of our Dean of Students office and disciplinary protocols, and general health and wellness." They also mentioned their plan of action. First, "Lawrenceville will contract with a specialist on school bullying to help construct policies and training to identify and effectively address the behaviors that lead to bullying and cyberbullying," followed by "Lawrenceville will contribute to the Jack Reid Foundation, a foundation established by the Reid family focused on education and prevention of bullying." It also stated,
"Lawrenceville will hire a Dean of Campus Wellbeing. This will be an endowed position focused on the variety of student mental health issues educational institutions face," "Lawrenceville faculty, professional staff, and students will participate in trainings and workshops to raise awareness and promote better understanding of adolescent mental health." It then spoke about, "Consulting with outside experts as needed, Lawrenceville will continue to review and make improvements to its emergency response protocols and crisis response plans; it similarly will review the safety training it provides to faculty and staff to assure it aligns with best practices." And "Lawrenceville will make a recurring gift to a mental health organization to support research and best practices for suicide prevention in school environments."
Who was Jack Reid?
Born on August 5, 2004, Jack was the son of William and Elizabeth Reid. As per Legacy, he was a junior at The Lawrenceville School, where fees is $76,000 a year, and graduated from The Buckley School in New York City. Not just that, he also served as President of Dickinson House at Lawrenceville and Chairman of the Student Council at Buckley. The school's website described him saying, "Jack was universally regarded as an extremely kind and good-hearted young man, with an unwavering sense of social and civic responsibility and a bright future."
Details of Jack Reid's death
Jack was bullied over the course of a year before his death. This all started in September 2021, as per The New York Times, when he returned to school as a junior. He was elected as the president of Dickinson House, one of the residential houses where the school’s boarding students live. And this led to hatred towards him from some of his classmates, explained his parents. A rape accusation was posted anonymously against Jack on a nationwide, student-run app popular with boarding school students. During a secret Santa gift exchange among his classmates, Jack was given a rape whistle along with a book about how to make friends. His father recalled that his son asked him, "Dad, will this ever go away? Will it ever get off the website?" Jack was also seeing a therapist at the time of his death because of the bullying, but they never discussed killing himself. In the late hours of April 30, he committed suicide in Dickinson House.
The school recently wrote, "Jack was a victim of bullying and other forms of cruel behavior at Lawrenceville over the course of a year, including in the form of false rumors in person and online. When these behaviors were brought to the attention of the School, there were steps that the School should in hindsight have taken but did not, including the fact that the School did not make a public or private statement that it investigated and found rumors about Jack that were untrue. There also were circumstances in which the involvement of an adult would have made a difference." And added, "In addition, on April 30, when the student who previously had been disciplined for bullying Jack was expelled for an unrelated violation of School rules, the School allowed him to return to Dickinson House largely unsupervised where students gathered, including some who said harsh words about Jack. School administrators did not notify or check on Jack. That night, Jack took his life, telling a friend that he could not go through this again. The School acknowledges that bullying and unkind behavior, and actions taken or not taken by the School, likely contributed to Jack’s death."
'This happened on my watch and I’m grief stricken'
Stephen S Murray, Lawrenceville's head of school, said from the beginning, "Let’s seek the truth and follow it where it leads us. Period. And that’s what we’ve tried to do every step of the way. This happened on my watch and I’m grief stricken. And yet I can’t begin to compare that to the grief and sorrow of Bill and Elizabeth Reid.” Commenting on it, Jack's mother, who is a clinical psychologist, said, “We feel like we both have life sentences without the possibility of parole. The only thing I’d love to change here is to get Jack back. I can’t.”