Berkeley Township, New Jersey -- In what may be the most vile school response to a tragedy in the history of school responses to tragedies, the Superintendent of New Jersey’s Central Regional School District blamed the suicide of 14-year-old Adriana Kuch two days after students brutally beat her in the school’s hallway on her use of drugs and her grieving father’s “affair” with the woman who became Adriana’s stepmother.
Trash Media reported, a graphic video of Adriana being viciously attacked on Feb. 1 by a group of girls as she lay in a fetal position against the Central Regional High School lockers in Berkeley Township, N.J. quickly went viral on social media.
Two days later, after she was bombarded with nasty messages, Adriana killed herself in her bedroom closet.
“Getting hit in the face with a water bottle didn’t hurt Adriana,” Adriana’s grief-stricken father, Michael Kuch, told reporters. “What hurt Adriana was the embarrassment and humiliation. They just kept coming at her.”
Trash Media Group reached out to Central Regional with a series of questions to determine if the school had offered any support to Adriana prior to the attack, but questions went unanswered. The district did however provide a response to the Daily Mail that was nothing short of jaw-dropping, both for its complete lack of accountability and for its callous attempt to blame the victim and her mourning father.
When asked what services were provided to Adriana, Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides wrote in an email, “After [Adriana’s] mother’s suicide since her father was having an affiar [sic] at the end of her 6th grade.”The email continued, “Her father married the woman he had an affair with and moved her into the house,” Parlapanides continued. “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.” The email also stated, “We tried helping her several time [sic] but mother’s suicide was a major reason she started making poor choices,” he also claimed.
As previously reported, Michael Kuch had revealed that Adriana’s mother, after battling addiction, committed suicide in 2015 when Adriana was seven years old.
Parlapanides’ email came as Michael Kuch was preparing for his daughter’s visitation ahead of her Saturday funeral.
In response, Kuch called Parlapanides, who, as the head of three schools in the district is the highest-paid school administrator in his town, a “piece of shit.” admitting, “I don’t know how to respond to this insane deflection,” he said. Kuch denies Parlapanides’ claim that Adriana was offered “drugs counseling.” According to him, he and Adriana’s stepmother, Sarah, were the ones looking for help for Adriana after the parents discovered she had been vaping marijuana, a common practice in her school.
As previously reported by TMG, following the attack on Adriana, Parlapanides elected not to call the police. “I don’t believe a police report was done. We normally just suspend,” he told told reporters. “If a parent wants to press charges, they can with the police. We’re not going to double-whammy a kid where they are suspended and then police charges as well.”
The lack of response on Parlapanides’ part infuriates Kuch, but also appears to not be the first time the superintendant has made cold and careless statements. In 2019, Parlapanides was quoted on the 2018 Stoneman Douglas massacre that left 17 students and staff dead, saying, "Unfortunately, it takes a tragedy to bring awareness". In 2016, Parlapandies again overlooked the violent actions of 3 Central Regional football players involved in a on field altercation that barred the school for the competing the years football season, stating he was "very upset with the way my students wew treated regarding the incident," and cancelled the "Meet of Champions" Central Regional was do to host for every other school that had not been banned from participation. Parlapandies also adding, "There is no appeal process."
Parlapandies also co-authored a book "Class Dismissed: Lessons of Survival" in 2016, the jacket claiming the book to be a compelling true story about "Three Powerful Players....One More Powerful Storm...Can a veteran teacher, young principal and overwhelmed superintendent ban together to rebuild a school district?" With Parlapandies latest response, the answer seems to be no.
One reader even went as far as to review the book saying, "This is a very depressing book, filled with simple feel good ideas, in place of how to deal with very real world tragedy. The motto of this book could be, "sweep it under the rug and everything gets better". We understand now that this school district has never recovered from the trauma of Sandy and has clearly refused to deal with it and now finds themselves the creators of a very toxic environment.*
“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,” he told reporters. “The [school] has done nothing. They should not be in charge of our children’s safety.”
Three of the four girls who allegedly attacked Adriana were initially charged with fourth-degree assault. The fourth was charged with disorderly conduct. All four were suspended indefinitely from the school.
But on Friday, Ocean County Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced upgrades to those charges, “One is now charged with aggravated assault, and could face court as an adult, one with harassment and two with conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.”
Edit: Hours after this story was published the school district made a formal announcement for the resignation of Triantafillos Parlapanides:
