Fighting and bullying in schools has become a huge issue in the last few years over the country, including LHS.

It is an issue that has been brought into headlines following the recent suicide of a New Jersey high school student following her being bullied and attacked in her school. 

On February 1, Adriana Kuch was allegedly assaulted and jumped by four students at Central Regional High School in Berkeley Township, NJ.

The group allegedly attacked her with a water bottle and continued to beat her up while she pleaded for help.

On February 3, shortly after the assault, Adriana’s father found her dead by suicide in their home.

Three of the 4 students are currently facing aggravated assault charges and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault.

However, the school has only suspended the students, which has made the community and students upset and they have been protesting this decision.

After interviewing some students from LHS, many have the same thoughts.

LHS Senior Matt Cohen, said “To stop fighting we need to re-evaluate how we resolve conflict as a generation.”

LHS Senior Siya Jagtap added, “I don’t think that the (NJ) school is doing enough.”

Many others like Siya also believe that the New Jersey school hasn’t been handling the situation properly. Their superintendent has even resigned after the incident. How would our school handle this situation?

School Resurce Officer Elvin Vasquez and Principal Dr. Joshua Romano explained what the school does to prevent a situation like Adriana’s from happening at our school. It begins with being informed. 

“We deal with 100 percent of the bullying claims,” said Romano, “but we deal with 0 percent of the ones we don’t know about.”

The school has several steps in place when they find out about bullying claims, which include school discipline, contacting the resource officer, and pushing parents to press criminal harassment charges. There is also a peer mediation team. However, there is only so much administration can do if the problem isn’t reported. 

We know fighting and bullying has been a problem not only at LHS, but all over the country. Many believe fighting has increased as an aftermath to life after the pandemic.

The students believe we at LHS should take Adriana’s story as a warning and do better moving forward.

Officer Vasquez recommends “Just be a good human.”