Hundreds of people came together to mourn the loss of Adriana Kuch, 14, who was beaten in the halls of a New Jersey school two days before killing herself when a video of the incident circulated online.
Superintendent of New Jersey’s Central Regional School District Triantafillos Parlapanides’ told DailyMail.com in a heartless smear campaign against Adriana – who killed herself in her bedroom closet on February 3 two days after being beaten – that she’d been offered counseling ‘for drugs’.
Sneaking out of his office at the Ocean County school, the embattled school Superintendent told DailyMail.com that he had ‘nothing more to say’ when asked whether his earlier comments were an attempt to steer blame away from the administration and whether he believed them to be insensitive.
Students and parents congregated outside the school grounds holding signs of protest in what they described to be ‘a shocking lack of sensitivity’ and action from the ‘administration who swore to protect’ them.
Luca Canzoneri, 15, spoke to DailyMail.com following another protest organized by students from the Ocean County school.
Superintendent of New Jersey’s Central Regional School District Triantafillos Parlapanides was seen trying to sneak out of his office on Friday
Students from the Central Regional High School are protesting over the suicide of Adriana due to bullying, as seen on Friday
Adriana’s father said she was ’embarrassed’ about the attack video circulating online and was being harassed by the bullies on social media and in texts
He said that he was introduced to Adriana through friends and they would sit together at lunch.
The 15-year-old said he’s devastated by the loss and astonished by the lack of action from the school he attends.
‘We’re trying to raise awareness because it’s taken her death to bring to light the severity of the bullying going on in central and how their not doing anything at all,’ he said.
‘The [administration] has been making fun of us for protesting,’ he claimed.
Standing on the school oval, with friends and parents, Luca explained that raising awareness came with risks.
Students and parents congregated outside the school grounds holding signs of protest
The students described what they believed to be ‘a shocking lack of sensitivity’ and action from the ‘administration who swore to protect’ them
‘We’re trying to raise awareness because it’s taken her death to bring to light the severity of the bullying going on in central and how their not doing anything at all,’ one protestor said
Some students feel aggrieved by the reaction of school staff following a fellow student’s suicide
The school is said to be suspending people if they protest. It remains unclear how many children have been suspended following protests in the wake of Adriana’s suicide
‘The school is suspending people if they protest, there was a protest yesterday with less people than today, but they all got suspended,’ he claimed.
It remains unclear how many children have been suspended following protests which erupted in the wake of Adriana’s suicide.
Danielle Ledesma said she didn’t know Adriana, however spoke to what some members of the community have called a systemic issue of bullying and lack of action from school staff.
Holding a sign that reads ‘I doubt that’ Danielle told DailyMail.com that it wasn’t the first time the school didn’t take action after a student approached them for help.
Parlapanides did his best to avoid answering DailyMail.com’s questioning on Friday afternoon
The embattled school Superintendent told DailyMail.com that he had ‘nothing more to say’
Central Regional High School in Bayville, New Jersey
The officer of Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides is pictured, above
The New Jersey teen, 14, killed herself days after she was seen being attacked in high school hallways by bullies – and school administrators failed to step in
Adriana killed herself sometime after 10.46pm on February 2nd
‘My sign is the response from the superintendent when my friend said that she got sexually assaulted in Central Regional high school,’ she said.
‘I’ve been severely bullied throughout my entire life,’ she explained talking to the treatment she’s received at the school.
Danielle went on to add that she had ‘been having panic attacks in the school on a daily basis’ because of the way she has been treated.
‘It got to the point where I now have all of these meltdowns, all of these crying fits, panic attacks, whatever it may be more than 5-6 times a day every single time that I have one at the school they do absolutely nothing,’ she said.
‘There was one point where I was telling the teacher to get away from me and they proceeded to pull me down to guidance because I was ‘skipping class’ even though the teacher knew I was out there I told her to kindly leave me alone and she never did she pushed more.
‘We’re all out here losing our voices so Adriana does not lose hers’
Jennifer O, who did not provide her full name in fear of repercussion, is a parent of a student at the school and told DailyMail.com it wasn’t just students who bullied children but claims staff members were ‘equally to blame’ for incidents of bullying.
According to her father Kuch was ‘smashed in the face three times with a water bottle’ and ‘blacked out.’ He then had to take his blood covered daughter to the police station to file a report because the school refused to do so
Adriana’s bruised legs after the attack. Her father said she was mostly ‘humiliated’ by the video, which made her feel like she’d been attacked ‘twice’
One of the girls involved in the attack posted these heartless messages on Snapchat. Adriana’s father said: ‘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.’
‘Our house is one of those houses where the kids like to come and hang out and Adriana had been at my place just a week before she died,’ said Jennifer.
‘I think back to her being there and wish I had known so I could have hugged her or told her that it was going to be ok and I was there for her.
‘Teacher’s can be bullies too at that school and they’re equally to blame.’
Earlier on Friday, in astonishing emails to DailyMail.com, Parlapanides, the Superintendent of New Jersey’s Central Regional School District who is paid $190,000-a-year, said Adriana – who killed herself in her bedroom closet on February 3 two days after being beaten – had been offered counseling ‘for drugs’.
He also made a shocking allegation against the girl’s grieving father Michael, a 22-year Army veteran, claiming he ‘had an affair’ when Adriana was seven that drove her mother to commit suicide, and later ‘moved the woman into the house’.
That ‘woman’ is Adriana’s stepmother, Michael’s wife Sarah, who spoke with DailyMail.com through tears on Friday morning as they prepared Adriana for visitation ahead of her funeral tomorrow.
Parlapanides made a shocking allegation against the girl’s grieving father Michael, a 22-year Army veteran, pictured claiming he ‘had an affair’ when Adriana was seven that drove her mother to commit suicide later ‘moving the woman into the house’. Stepmom, Sarah, is seen
Adriana killed herself sometime after 10.46pm on February 2nd. The bullies who’d attacked her were threatening to go after her boyfriend next, and had bombarded her with harassing messages all day.
Parlapanides’ emails – which comes a week after Adriana’s suicide – were in response to a series of questions from DailyMail.com about whether she’d received support from the school.
She killed herself two days after being ruthlessly taunted about the attack on social media.
When asked what services had been provided to her, Parlapanides said: ‘After [Adriana’s] mother’s suicide since her father was having an affiar [sic] at the end of her 6th grade.
‘Her father married the woman he had an affair with and moved her into the house.
‘Her grades and choices declined in 7th and 8th grade.
‘We offered her drug rehab and mental services on 5 occasions but father refused every time.’
This is the email response Parlapanides provided to DailyMail.com when asked what counseling Adriana had been given. He claimed her ‘choices declined’, that her mother committed suicide ‘since her father had an affair’
He then claimed: ‘We tried helping her several time but mother’s suicide was a major reason she started making poor choices.’
Michael Kuch previously explained to DailyMail.com how Adriana’s mother had battled addiction and tragically died in 2015, when Adriana was just seven.
He denied Parlapanides’ claims that ‘drugs counseling’ was offered to his daughter, instead explaining that he and his wife sought help for her because she had been smoking marijuana with a vape – as many kids at the school did.
‘I don’t know how to respond to this insane deflection,’ Mr. Kuch said in response to the superintendent’s emails.
‘This guy is a piece of s**t,’ he said, while preparing for his daughter’s funeral tomorrow.
In addition to his emails to DailyMail.com, Parlapanides – the highest paid school administrator in the town – also defended himself on Facebook, claiming there are ‘two sides to every story’, after an alumni saw the news of Adriana’s death and said she would never send her kids to the school.
In astonishing emails to DailyMail.com Triantafillos Parlapanides, the Superintendent of Central Regional School District, said Adriana – who killed herself in her bedroom closet on February 3 two days after being beaten – had been offered counseling ‘for drugs’
Parlapanides is in charge of three schools; he has served as the superintendent for 14 years. Adriana’s father believes the school failed his daughter by not calling police on the bullies after the attack.
Adriana killed herself after seeing their taunts on social media, and after one of the girls sent her a direct message laughing about it.
‘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.
‘The [school] has done nothing. They should not be in charge of our children’s safety.’
What drove her to kill herself, he says, is the fact that she was ’embarrassed’ about the fast-spreading videos of the attack on TikTok and Snapchat.
‘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. 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.’
The school was last year sued by the family of another girl who say she was ‘jumped’ in the hallways.
The day after the beating, Adriana stayed home from school.
She lived with her father, stepmother, 16-year-old brother and two stepsisters.
Her mother tragically died when she was seven.
‘Her father says the school staff told her to, because they didn’t want bullies to mock her swelling or bruising.
‘We spent time together… she decided that she wanted to go back to school the next day.
‘She went to her boyfriend’s house during the day. I got home at around 5 o’clock.
‘We had McDonald’s and I got her her favorite – the crispy chicken sandwich.
‘We had dinner, we talked about friends and making life choices… I kind of liked to lecture her.
‘We had a great conversation, [my wife and I] said that we wanted her to be hanging out with good people and tried to explain to her how that would help in life.
‘She was in a good mood,’ he said. The family said goodnight and went to their separate bedrooms.
Adriana with her boyfriend Jason, who tried to pull the other girls off her and protect her
Cameras inside the home showed Adriana going from her bedroom in the converted basement into the kitchen for snacks at around 10pm.
Now, her father knows from her cellphone records that she had been online and texting with her boyfriend.
He also knows that she received a direct message from one of the girls involved, taunting her about the video and the beating.
He says it made fun of her for ‘dripping’ blood, and that she got her ‘a** whooped.’
The last text Adriana sent was to her boyfriend at 10.46pm.
‘You can’t even give me the time of day,’ she said. S
At 5am, her stepmother went down to her room to wake her up. Mr. Kuch recalls hearing her ‘screaming’.
‘I was in the kitchen, the wife went downstairs [to wake Adriana] and I just heard her screaming “no”.
‘I ran downstairs and see immediately that her bed s 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. 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.’
The family is preparing for a private visitation today. Adriana’s funeral will be held tomorrow.
The four girls have been charged now; three with fourth degree assault, and one with disorderly conduct. It is unclear if they will be prosecuted as adults or minors.
The New Jersey Department of Education has been contacted for comment.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also call the network, previously known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, at 800-273-8255, text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional help and information.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk