the family of 14-year-old Adriana Kush who died by Suicide nearly a year ago is suing her former School District alleging administrators at Central Regional High School knew a quote culture of violence existed within the school system but failed to protect the teen from it video posted to social media just days before Kush took her life showed the Freshman being viciously attacked in a school hallway it later became known Kush was the victim of repeated bullying and in the aftermath of her death more videos surfaced of other bullying incidents against students at the school a senior correspondent Brenda Flanigan reports the civil lawsuit filed by the family also targets the former superintendent this case is widely seen as a way to write a terrible wrong attorney Bill craze represents Adriana cooch's family the 14-year-old died by suicide last February after four classmates at Central Regional High School assaulted her and then posted videos of that attack on social media today craze announced her family suing the school district's Board of Education claiming it failed in its duty to properly protect Adriana from attacks and cyber bullying they knew they had a bullying problem there were there are two other lawsuits pending besides ours so those three lawsuits combined uh show that this problem had preceded long before February 1 2023 the seven count civil suit names the board several school officials and especially former superintendent triantos parlapanides asserting that for years they knew or should have known a culture and climate of harassment intimidation and bullying existed at Central Regional High School which included physical assaults like this one recorded by students and posted on social media it claims that after the attack on Adriana defendants also breach their duties by failing to conduct an adequate timely and thorough investigation of the physical attack which would have eliminated the risk of a subsequent Cyber attack on Adriana the cooch family has been left with one option and that's to file this lawsuit they filed this lawsuit to seek Justice for Adriana and to hold the school district school officials and especially the superintendent accountable the lawsuit also accuses former superintendent parlapanides of invading Adriana and the cooch family's privacy defaming them and inflicting emotional distress by making false statements about her father's relationships and illegally disclosing private information about Adriana's mental health the suit says parap panades told a reporter Adriana's dad would just have to eat the sandwich after she died there is currently in New Jersey no meaningful consequence of any kind for schools and administrators that don't adequately protect and support kids in including when kids die so this lawsuit is not a uh a shock to me in a sense and and I can only you know welcome it Stuart green served on Jersey's recent anti-bullying task force he cites the Tyler Clemente and mallerie grman lawsuits as cases that resulted in new state antibullying laws these tragedies are what drives progress in terms of schools addressing bullying and uh and that's disgraceful CRA says the family especially Adriana's Father Michael felt too upset to speak out as the one-year anniversary of her death approaches a day doesn't go by uh a moment doesn't go by he doesn't think about his daughter um he wakes up in the middle of the night um screaming her name Central Regional recently filed a lawsuit against social media platforms it claims enables teen cyber bullying NJ light news has reached out to the district and former superintendent parap panades for comment on this lawsuit which seeks compensatory and punitive damages I'm Brenda Flanagan NJ Spotlight News [Music] [Music]