New Bullying Lawsuit Filed Against Central Regional School District

BERKELEY, NJ — A student at Central Regional Middle School continues to face harassment and bullying for having autism and the district has done nothing to help them, according to a new lawsuit.

The lawsuit, filed on March 23 by the student's parent, comes at a time when the school district is trying to better its anti-bullying policies after a high school student, 14-year-old Adriana Kuch, took her own life after being bullied. Read more: Bayville Teen's Death Inspires Amendment To Parents Bill Of Rights

Central Regional Board of Education's attorney told Patch he could not comment on litigation matters.

The student, named H.R. in the suit, is currently an eighth grader and has been physically and verbally harassed since the start of their seventh-grade year, according to the lawsuit.

H.R. was called "sped," a derogatory term for special education students, the lawsuit says. Their stutter was mocked, their autism diagnosis was directly made fun of and they were physically hit and shoved, according to the lawsuit.

The student's mother continually reached out to Principal Joseph Firetto, who said he would "look into it," but did nothing to investigate or deter the bullying, the lawsuit said.

H.R. did homebound instruction from December 2021 through March 22, but as soon as they returned to in-person learning, the harassment picked up "almost as if [the student] had not even been gone from the school building," the lawsuit said.

They were called fat, and changed their eating patterns, the lawsuit said.

They were also attacked by a dog and their eye was injured. The day they returned to school after the injury, the student was smacked in the injured eye by one of their bullies, the lawsuit said.

After the student's mother told Firetto of this, he suggested that "kids will be kids," according to the lawsuit.

Firetto then implied that the student had triggered the harassers, shifting the blame, the lawsuit said.

The bullying continued into the student's eighth-grade year, according to the lawsuit, where they were mocked for their facial scars and told the dog attack should have killed them.

Those bullies also suggested that the dog's attack had been sexually motivated - implying that the student was gay and was sexually attracted to animals, the lawsuit said.

H.R.'s mother again called Firetto, who responded with, "Again? It's only the second day," the lawsuit said.

Since then, the bullying has gone on, with the student sometimes coming home with physical injuries from school, the lawsuit said.

And, according to the lawsuit, the bullying has continued as of February 2023.

While the district made international news in February after Kuch took her own life, a similar lawsuit was filed in October 2022.

That lawsuit claims that a student was physically assaulted and officials did not take action despite knowing beforehand that the attack would happen.

Further Reading

New Anti-Bullying Policies Raise Concerns At Central Regional

Long History Of Bullying At Central Regional, Students Say

No 'Culture Of Violence' At Central, Acting Superintendent Says