Teen recalls ‘humiliating’ bullying at Adriana Kuch’s NJ high school

A former student at the New Jersey high school where Adriana Kuch was allegedly bullied before taking her own life earlier this month is sharing her own “humiliating” experience — as her family confronts the district with legal action.

“I went through physical assault in the same school when I was a freshman, and the humiliation, the bullying,” sophomore Olivia O’Dea told CBS2 this week of her time at Central Regional High School in Berkeley Township.

Olivia told the outlet that she was attacked by two fellow students at school in Jan. 2022, and a video of the incident was shared online.

Her experience is eerily similar to that of Adriana Kuch, 14, who died by suicide on Feb. 3, two days after she was beated in a school hallway and footage of the confrontation circulated via the internet.

Kuch’s death has since sparked widespread outcry about the district’s failure to address the school’s rampant bullying issue. 

Repeated criticism from both Kuch’s family and student protests last week prompted Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides to abruptly resign over the weekend.

After initially avoiding punishment, the four girls allegedly involved in the attack on Kuch were also charged last week with various offenses, including aggravated assault.

“It’s a travesty that [the bullying is] continuing,” Olivia’s mother, Rachael O’Dea, told NJ Advance Media of Kuch’s death.

O’Dea claims that CRHS did not call authorities when her own daughter was assaulted. She subsequently removed Olivia from the school, and filed a lawsuit on her behalf against the Central Regional School District in Oct. 2022. 

“There’s no accountability [from the school], there’s no changes being made. This isn’t something new to them,” she lamented.

The family’s civil suit alleges that Olivia was threatened by another student over text before she was attacked in the hallway, according to NJ Advance Media.

She reportedly shared the troubling messages with a teacher, a guidance counselor, and administrators, but no actions were taken.

“This goes on in other districts. But in this particular school, there’s a real pattern of events like this, and this should never have happened with this young girl,” the O’Deas’ lawyer, Jonathan Ettman, told the outlet.

Ettman’s description of CRHS dovetails accurately with online allegations that emerged in the wake of Kuch’s suicide, which accused administrators’ complacency of exacerbating the school’s serious bullying problem.

“As a teacher there and a parent there who dealt with intense bullying, we would often plead with administration to get things under control, and only one of them ever tried,” former teacher Daniel Keiser wrote in a Facebook post.

“They were notorious for brushing things under the carpet.” 

Ettman added that the prevalence of social media brings a new, disturbing element to bully culture.

“Now we’re in a time when every single thing is videotaped and put online. It has changed the face of bullying,” he told CBS.

While Berkeley Township officials have reportedly vowed to reinforce the high school’s zero tolerance bullying policy, Kuch’s father, Michael, previously said that he will not be satisfied until the entire district in revamped.

“I want that entire administration gone,” he told The Post Saturday.

“We just want the school to start changing and taking accountability,” Adriana’s sister-in-law, Jennifer Ferro, added.