On Friday, three Fox News anchors were brought to tears while reporting on a bullied teenage girl who tragically took her own life after being beaten by other teens.
On Feb. 1, fourteen-year-old Adriana Kuch died from suicide after being assaulted by other teens at Central Regional High School in Bayville, New Jersey, and after video of the attack was shared around her school.
Following her death, students and parents gathered in the school’s auditorium giving emotional and passionate testimonies, placing blame on the school district for inaction and pleading with them to take action on bullying and suicide.
When the segment cut back to the newsroom, several hosts of Fox News’ “Outnumbered” were barely holding back tears, including co-host Kennedy Montgomery, who commented, “This is so hard to watch.”
“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 added that she had been a victim of bullying while in school but had hidden it from her parents. She added that social media has only added to the severity of bullying due to videos and cyberbullying.
Montgomery added that her own teenage daughter was bullied and said that her school “did nothing” about it. She argued that schools across the U.S. take no action to stop bullying from happening. She said that COVID-19 helped escalate 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,” she added.
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 spiked 31% between 2010 and 2015, while middle and high schoolers began using smartphones at an increased rate. 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.
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