Superintendent Resigns After Teen Attacked at School Kills Herself

Source says board may have wanted him out after interviews
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 13, 2023 2:15 AM CST
Superintendent Resigns After Teen Who Was Attacked at School Dies by Suicide
Stock photo   (Getty Images / Jeff Kingma)

On Feb. 1, Adriana Kuch was attacked by four of her fellow students at her New Jersey high school. Two days later, the 14-year-old was found dead in her Bayville home, having taken her own life. Now, the superintendent of the Central Regional School District has stepped down. Sources tell NBC New York the school board may have decided to take action against Dr. Triantafillos Parlapanides after interviews he gave late last week regarding Adriana. He essentially blamed the freshman's death on her father's affair and the aftermath that ensued, according to the New York Post.

He reportedly said that when Adriana was in 6th grade, her father had an affair and eventually that woman moved into the family home, and that at some point Adriana's mother died by suicide. He reportedly added that the situation at home led to Adriana making poor choices involving drug use, and claimed she had been offered "drug rehab and mental services" by the school district multiple times but that her father had declined. Adriana's father decried Parlapanides essentially "blaming" his daughter for what happened to her, and said the only drug she'd ever experimented with was a weed vape pen. He also denied the claim that she'd been offered drug counseling.

The school did not file a police report regarding the attack, even though Adriana's father says the teen lost consciousness; she was simply taken to the school nurse. Adriana's father made a police report as soon as he learned what had happened, but video of the attack was already circulating online. Adriana's father says if the school had launched an investigation sooner, he believes his daughter could have been spared the "mortification" of the cellphone footage being aired. He also says the death of Adriana's mother was in 2015 and had nothing to do with this tragedy. The four students involved have been suspended from school and criminally charged. (More New Jersey stories.)

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