Three Fox News anchors nearly broke down in tears during an emotional segment Friday about a bullied teenage girl’s suicide.
Fourteen-year-old Adriana Kuch died from suicide Feb. 1 reportedly after being beat up by other teens at Central Regional High School in Bayville, New Jersey. Following her death, students and parents gathered in the school’s auditorium giving emotional and passionate testimonies, pleading with the school to take action on bullying and suicide.
“This is so hard to watch,” a visibly tearful co-host Kennedy Montgomery said.
“It is, I can’t imagine feeling so unheard and so unseen. These poor children,” co-host Emily Compagno said. “I can’t imagine what their parents feel.”
“Turn that sadness into rage, because the people in this school district did nothing, and after this child killed herself, the superintendent, who did resign over the weekend, publicly tried to blame that child’s parents. He talked publicly to the Daily Mail and revealed details about her father’s life, and they knew this was going on, and the acting superintendent has come out and said this is all just a ‘communications problem,'” Fox Business host Dagen McDowell added with tears in her eyes.
McDowell said she had been a victim of bullying growing up and that she hid it from her parents. She said social media has heightened the severity of bullying due to videos and cyberbullying. (RELATED: QUAY: Give Kids Cigarettes, Not Smartphones)
Montgomery said her own teenage daughter was bullied and that her school allegedly “did nothing” about it, arguing schools across the U.S. take no action to stop bullying from happening. She said the COVID-19 pandemic has escalated bullying due to children being mentally “wounded from the pandemic” and forgetting “how to treat each other.”
“Shame on every school district that is creating victims like this,” Montgomery said.
A video emerged online of students viciously beating Kuch in the school hallway, NBC 4 New York reported. Her father, Michael, said his daughter turned to school officials about being bullied several times, and they allegedly did nothing.
“She was on the floor blacked out and you guys didn’t do nothing about it. You guys could’ve prevented that,” a friend of Kuch’s told the school board. “She made numerous reports about how she was being bullied and you guys sat there and did nothing.”
Teen suicides reportedly spiked 31% between 2010 and 2015 as middle and high schoolers began using smartphones at higher rates. Hospitalization rates for suicide ideation and suicide attempts among youths ages 5-17 increased between 2008 and 2015, especially among teenage girls, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
