AMAC Exclusive – By Andrew Abbott
![School](https://amac.us/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/school-safety.jpg)
A New Jersey school superintendent resigned late last week following the suicide of a 14-year-old girl who was routinely bullied at a public school in his district. The teenager, Adriana Kuch, took her own life on February 3 after a video of multiple other female students viciously attacking her at school was posted and went viral online. The tragic incident was just the latest example of an alarming rise of violence in schools, even as many administrators and education bureaucrats work to remove resource officers from hallways and soften disciplinary actions – often in the name of “racial justice” or other left-wing talking points.
Kuch, who attended Central Regional High School in Berkeley Township, New Jersey, is remembered by her friends and family as a kind and generous person who volunteered to help children with special needs and enjoyed spending time in nature. In a shocking 20-second video clip that made the rounds online a few weeks ago, a group of girls are seen mercilessly punching and kicking Kuch and pulling her hair. Kuch’s assailants posted the video to their social media accounts, where they also posted other content talking and laughing about bullying Kuch.
Two days after the assault, and after reportedly facing more merciless bullying at school, Kuch took her own life at home. Soon thereafter, alarming details began to emerge about glaring failures by school officials to adequately respond to the incident that apparently precipitated Kuch’s suicide.
For instance, though Kuch was knocked unconscious during the beating, she was only taken to the school nurse’s office, rather than school officials calling an ambulance. Other students also reported that the viral video was just one example of a pattern of abuse endured by Kuch and others at the school, which students say administrators routinely ignored.
Amid mounting public backlash, Central Regional School district superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides initially blamed Kuch’s father and even Kuch herself for the tragedy, claiming that her father was having an “affair” and that Kuch had a “drug addiction” which caused her to take her own life. Parlapanides flatly denied that the bullying Kuch faced had anything to do with her suicide.
After days of outrage from parents and a mass walk-out of students at the school, Parlapanides resigned. Kuch’s family is calling for more officials to step down as well, citing systemic failures to protect Kuch and other students who are victims of bullying.
Unfortunately for many students throughout the country, Kuch’s story is hardly unique. Public schools are reporting an unprecedented rise in bullying and assaults, both verbal and physical.
Most of these cases involve students attacking other students, but teachers and school officials have also been victimized by the rise in school violence. A Georgia teen is currently facing criminal charges after assaulting her teacher in January, leaving the educator with a broken leg. In December, another high school student in California attacked a teacher with a knife. Around the same time as Kuch’s case was making headlines, another viral video showed a 15-year-old boy savagely beating a 9-year-old girl on a school bus.
While most schools don’t release data on the number of bullying and assault incidents, one study found that reports of bullying increased 35% from 2016 to just prior to pandemic school closures. Another recent report from the CDC found that teen girls in particular are “engulfed” in violence and trauma.
But even as schools are becoming more dangerous, administrators are removing protections for students and growing more lenient toward offenders. As the “Defund the Police” movement grew in popularity following the death of George Floyd in 2020, many districts eliminated their school resource officer positions. Under policies pushed by Democrats at the federal, state, and local level, most schools have also virtually eliminated suspension and expulsion as punishment for misbehavior, even violent acts. In one high-profile case from a Virginia high school last year, a male student who identified as a girl raped a female student in a bathroom, but was then allowed to attend another district high school the following year, where he abducted and sexually assaulted another female student in a classroom.
In effect, these measures are the K-12 version of the left-wing crusade to “reimagine” the criminal justice system. In Gwinnett County, Georgia, where the aforementioned assault on a teacher took place, the school board had just approved a slate of so-called “restorative justice practices” aimed at addressing “racial disparities” in discipline. Both the attacker and the victim were Black.
According to the Georgetown Law Center on Poverty and Inequality, 21 states and the District of Columbia had enacted similar “restorative practices” in schools as of 2020, purporting to focus on the “root causes” of misbehavior rather than punishing students who break school rules and in many cases the law. Proponents of the concept argue that “traditional” discipline “widens inequities” and is unfair to students of color.
But as critics have pointed out, the victims in many cases of school violence are also racial minorities. Like in the case of Adriana Kuch, the perpetrators are often allowed to remain in school, leading to more violence.
Some school districts, like in Washington, D.C., and nearby Alexandria and Montgomery Counties, are now rushing to bring resource officers back into schools. But until school administrators and woke education bureaucrats acknowledge that progressive ideology is fundamentally incompatible with ensuring safety and order in classrooms and hallways, schools will likely continue to be far more dangerous than they should be.
Andrew Abbott is the pen name of a writer and public affairs consultant with over a decade of experience in DC at the intersection of politics and culture.
Wokeness is a tool of the devil “without HONOR America is nothing” which is exactly what this presindency wants and with control over the judiciary & the FBI they have declared that they are above the Law. Our only recourse then is to (as they are doing) enforce the laws of the land by FORCE!!!! All law-abiding citizens must STOP WORKING, bring the economy to a stand still and millions of us go and physically put Biden & more importantly his lackies that prop him up, the heads of the FBI and judiciary into a concentration camp permanetly and take back our Country based on the Constitution period!!!
That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness
They’re still paying the ousted Superintendent in NJ, WHY??? WHY do you allow a beating in the school, and refused to call the police because it would be a double whammy to the perps??? This should NOT be tolerated, and the entire school board FIRED!
These little hoodlums committing these crimes with impunity will grow up to be big hoodlums committing crimes with impunity. (A special nod to DOlson’s comment below)
Sounds like grounds for a multi-million$ lawsuit against the school, each perpetrator, and criminal charges against each perpetrator. Unless there are consequences, this will continue to happen.
Can you imagine if this was your child?
I’m heartbroken for the family, but as for the perpetrators, including the entire school administration and the animals who cowardly do evil, justice cries out for Adriana and those like her.
I wonder how much of this additional violence in schools is due to the introduction of Critical Race Theory indoctrination by the Left. Stuff like that is designed to separate the student body into different camps and fuels hatred between the different racial groups. This was injected at a time when the blacks, whites, Latinos, and Asians were learning how to get along well with each other. The Left just cannot stand for Americans to actually come together because they thrive on pitting one group against the other; black against white, youth against elderly, etc.
This is what happens in societies that have thrown God out! Sexual deviancy, narcissism, and violence: all in the name of equity? Really? And how long is this going to continue before an all out war breaks out? Is that what the leftist really want? How long before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah comes to communities in the US? God is NOT happy!
I have a suggestion rather than removing resource officers from schools. I know at least one school district that has a police officer assigned in each school. Students know this person and routinely high-five him/her in the halls. On career day law officers from all branches are represented. Their equipment including handguns are displayed for students to handle and learn about. Our country actually needs students who can aspire to consider law enforcement as a career, one that deserves respect.n
LOSER WOKE makes OUR children LOSERS.
Is that what you want your children to be?
Not every teacher is capable of being a Mr. Kotter, a friend, mentor and educator to an unrulily group of multi racial teenagers. There are no classes dealing with how to maintain control in an unfriendly classroom. If the teacher disciplines a kid regardless of how insulting or violent, he or she is the teacher is always at fault. And now these kids roam around the halls in groups going around and beating up other kids and scaring the teaching staff. Again, we’re looking at the wrong people to solve this problem. The people who can solve this problem are the parents. The parents need to be held accountable for their children’s bullying and creating havoc in the school system. The parents need to be fined to do public service in these schools and deal with their children.
Thanks to LOSER Wokeness, schools are Dropping Honor Classes in the name of LOSER Wokeness.
So instead of those that naturally excel more than others or those that want to try to excel more they want to punish them.
They DON’T want YOU to be ACHIEVERS.
They DON’T want YOU to be SMART.
They want everybody the same so it is easier to CONTROL YOU and be OBEDIENT ONLY to them.
That’s LOSER Wokeness.
“Reimagine” may be very much like “let’s pretend,” or “let’s make-believe.” A departure from reality to an appealing fantasy. “Restorative practices” requires some specific, defined practice that is to be placed back into reality, as well as a plan to implement the same. Everything I have read about “woke” does not seem to have brought the appealing fantasy into reality. Nor do I know of any past time when those practices were in effect and were effective. The “practice” to be “restored” never existed and, therefore, cannot be restored. What am I missing?
So where are the parents? Not just the parents whose children are committing these crimes but the parents of the children who are victims, them?
It’s easy to armchair quarterback, but I think if it was one of my kids who was abused like that I’d go after that kid’s parents and make it very clear to them that if their child layed another hand on my child they would suffer severe consequences. If not from the law, directly from my hand.
What is happening? This student was assaulted and it was witnessed. There are consequences for the bullies assault. Why aren’t they implemented. Bullies of this level of violence must be removed from school, counseled, or rehabbed for their behavior. Color, race or creed should never be a factor if the offender is guilty. They should be punished. I am a grandfather to a 15 yr old in High School. My son is very conscious of her comments when she comes home from school. It’s called parenting and just plain paying attention to your child and getting involved immediately if there is a problem. Defending the Police was a travesty and never should have been implemented. Incidents like this is just one result. The most tragic result. And the bullies bragged about it on social media? What happened to them? Punished? The School Superintendant resigned…not enough. He blamed the student who committed suicide for her own death. Really? Parents need to take the schools back from these woke left wing liberal idiots who really don’t care, except for their power structure. Vote Good People back in to school administration positions. Reinstate School Officers. Think what this could mean for the future as these bullies reach adulthood and commit more severe crimes against society.
Is there some reason that you can’t take your children out of the public school system?
Home schooling, which is not hard, is only one option.
You have been teaching your child since the day he was born. You know how to teach. You have been snowed by another “woke” lie, that teaching is some sort of special occupation. It isn’t.
Leftists really do need a dirt nap. ????????????????????