The heartfelt plea of community members demanding action from their local school board after a young girl’s suicide was more than the hosts of Fox News’s “Outnumbered” could bear as they tearfully reacted.
(Video: Fox News)
At only 14 years old, Adriana Kuch had reportedly committed suicide at the beginning of February only days after a video went viral of four fellow students of the Central Regional School District in Ocean County, New Jersey showed them beating the girl up. Since then, the community has rallied for action to work toward preventing another such tragedy, and after presenting footage of parents and students alike sharing their deeply personal experiences, Friday’s Fox News panel could not contain their own emotions.
Lisa Kennedy was first to react as co-hosts Emily Compagno and Dagen McDowell were also fighting tears while she said, “This is so hard to watch.”
Compagno attempted to carry on the segment as Kennedy faltered and began, “I can’t imagine feeling so unheard and so unseen. These poor children. I can’t imagine what their parents feel.”
It was then that McDowell cut in and suggested, “Turn that sadness into rage because these people at this — in this school district did nothing. And after this child killed herself, the superintendent who did resign over the weekend, publicly tried to blame that child’s parents.”
She went on to lament how the acting superintendent had tried to cover for the resigned predecessor who had publicly attacked Kuch’s father’s personal life when his own reputation was tarnished by saying it was a “communications problem.”
“We all get upset, I think, and you’re my friends, but I was bullied growing up and beaten up. And you hide it from your parents because you don’t wanna upset ’em,” McDowell continued as she countered the “communications” argument. “And now it’s worse today.”
“You go home and you get bullied on social media and it really is relentless,” a more composed Kennedy expressed. “You know, I’ve got two teenage girls, one of whom was bullied and I went to school and they did nothing. It’s not just that school, it’s not just this school, it’s across the country.”
As previously reported, students who spoke out at the Thursday school board meeting had told their own stories of being bullied by peers and, in some cases, detailed self-harm as the outcome. One had said, “I had been cutting. It’s the only escape that I have. I am going home scared and threatened. There are some people who don’t belong here.”
Anger and hurt flares at New Jersey meeting after teen's suicidehttps://t.co/QD5Bqi27ax
— American Wire News (@americanwire_) February 17, 2023
Another recounted, “Since I’ve been at this school, since the 7th grade, people in this room have made fun of me. … I’ve been called slurs, had stuff thrown on me. I’ve not been allowed to sit next to people on the bus because I smelled apparently so bad.”
Still another explained how she left the school to escape harassment that included students telling her she was “ugly and fat and that I should kill myself. They sent me pictures of guns and said that they were going to send people to rape me.”
“Kids forgot how to treat each other,” Kennedy went on. “Schools have abdicated the responsibility to discipline students who harm other kids and children are so wounded from the pandemic and in such mental peril and despair, and they got $190 billion from the federal government and they have not provided adequate resources and shame on every school district that is creating victims like this.”
Dr. Marc Siegel would go on to point out data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention highlighting the compromised emotional state, especially of young girls, and said, “56 percent of girls, according to CDC over the past year, expressed deep sadness. One out of three threatened suicide. And bullying has a lot to do with this.”
While the superintendent had resigned and the students seen beating up Kuch had been expelled, an attorney for the girl’s family confirmed to the New York Post that the school district would be sued for its inaction that ended in suicide.
“The administration’s role in Adriana’s tragic death will be brought to light, and Mr. Kuch will use every legal avenue possible to get to the truth, for his family and the community,” attorney William A. Krais said.
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Native of Brooklyn, NY, Kevin Haggerty is a graduate of Hunter College where he studied Cultural Anthropology and Geography. An avid reader and truth seeker, he currently resides in Texas with his wife and their dog and, when he isn't researching current events and their impacts, you'll find him spending time with friends and family or working on his next novel.
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