NJ Boarding School Admits it Failed to Stop Bullying of Student Who Committed Suicide
“Lawrenceville’s top priority is the physical, social, and emotional health, safety, and wellbeing of our students. We recognize that in Jack’s case, we fell tragically short of these expectations.”
In April 2022, Jack Reid, 17, committed suicide in his dorm room at the Lawrenceville School outside of Trenton, NJ.
On Sunday, the school admitted it didn’t do enough to protect Reid from bullying after a rumor started he was a rapist:
‘As we seek to improve as a community, we have examined our role and take responsibility for what we could have done differently. Lawrenceville’s top priority is the physical, social, and emotional health, safety, and wellbeing of our students. We recognize that in Jack’s case, we fell tragically short of these expectations,’ the statement read.
‘Jack was universally regarded as an extremely kind and good-hearted young man, with an unwavering sense of social and civic responsibility and a bright future. We continue to mourn this loss,’ the school wrote in the statement noting how a settlement had been reached with his parents, William and Elizabeth Reid.
It all started in the spring of 2021:
But in the spring of 2021, a persistent and untrue rumor that Jack was a rapist spread widely throughout the student body and led to cruel comments from some students, according to his parents.
In September 2021, when he returned to school as a junior, he was nonetheless elected president of Dickinson House, one of the residential houses where the school’s boarding students live. That appears to have increased animosity among some of his classmates and caused the rumor to spread further, his parents said.
A few days after the election, the unfounded rape accusation was posted anonymously to a nationwide, student-run app popular with boarding-school students, Jack’s parents said.
The bullying spread quickly online, his parents said, and at Christmastime, during a secret Santa gift exchange among Lawrenceville classmates, Jack received a rape whistle and a book about how to make friends.
Jack and his parents confronted school officials about the bullying. The school investigated the allegations, which “found that the claim was bogus.” The school disciplined the student for bullying Jack, who was “expelled for an unrelated violation of school rules.”
The school never told anyone the results of the investigation. That was a huge mistake along with not supervising the boy the school expelled:
“There were steps that the school should in hindsight have taken but did not, including the fact that the school did not make a public or private statement that it investigated and found rumors about Jack that were untrue,” Lawrenceville said in the statement.
The school and the Reids also tried unsuccessfully to get comments related to the sexual assault claims removed from the app.
The school also acknowledged that it had erred more specifically on the night Jack took his life, just hours after the classmate involved in the bullying was formally expelled. Instead of being supervised as he packed his belongings, the boy was permitted to participate in a drawn-out farewell that included a final run around campus and a group photograph. During the gathering, some students also made harsh comments about Jack, inaccurately blaming him for the boy’s expulsion.
“School administrators did not notify or check on Jack,” the school’s statement acknowledged. “That night, Jack took his life, telling a friend that he could not go through this again.”
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Jesus
Courage
I just can’t get my head around this. There have been bully’s since the beginning of time, clearly with social media, it’s worse in many perspectives…
Raise your children as warriors
And I do say that as someone who has experienced suicide(s) in my family…
Destroyed my family
And good idea would be to not let your kids on social
Media…
When it coms to bullying, schools are perfect microcosms of government. They fail to provide protection, then punish you for defending yourself.
“he was nonetheless elected president of Dickinson House… That appears to have increased animosity among some of his classmates”
Who I bet, to a person, just idolize the hell out of “muh democracy.”
False and unsupported accusations, especially false and unsupported allegations of a sexual nature are devastating to a young man. Why would they conduct an investigation and not release the findings? Likely b/c the narrative was wrong and the accuser and those who supported them would have their feelings hurt.
This is the kind of cheap young men face daily around the Nation. One weirdo liar points a finger and everyone jumps to condemn the young man. No longer are they innocent until proven guilty. No that’s too old fashioned. Much easier to believe all women and skip ahead to punishment.
The one actually systemic problem we have is misandry. No evidence? No problem, we are told to believe all women. An investigation finds no evidence? No problem, just suppress the findings. After all the young man is a man isn’t he? If he can’t carry the abusive and manipulative load in a stoic and silent manner then he must not be a ‘real man’ right?
This shit must end. It’s nothing but an excuse to go after young men who some in the crowd don’t like, were scorned by or some other petty excuse. Young men have their lives upended by false allegations, some become so despondent and feel so isolated and unsupported they end their lives. It’s bullying on a societal scale and regime approved b/c as the popular phrase has it ‘men are trash’.
I am not much of a Pink Floyd fan, but they nailed the English bording schools down pretty well (and Lawrenceville is modeled on that system)
Self-abortion is socially progressive. #NoJudgment #NoLabels
Suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, but the person cannot understand this when in crisis..
Social media can be wonderful for keeping in touch, but it can be poison.,
It is Posion , wrote a letter, make a phone call, print pictures and send them
Get off social
Media
He was accosted outside of social media as well. He was not mature enough to see life beyond the moment. The saddest thing I read today…
He was 17. You aren’t expected to be fully mature until mid twenties or so. It wasn’t localized to his school, Where to you go, what kind of hope if you believe the world thinks you are a rapist? Did any of his peers that knew him push back? Probably not many because it is like with us big people, you just don’t want the trouble and from your perspective, if it isn’t true, it isn’t a big deal. (I don’t think that way, but a lot of people do, My sister says not to follow the news, you’ll be happier, which is true, until some stupid thing politicians do effect your life and you didn’t know it was coming)
Always be willing to reach out to someone you trust or respect for help. Always be willing to provide the initial help to someone who trusted or respected you enough to choose you to be the person they reach out to.
Everyone has value. Please don’t throw yourself away b/c you temporarily feel less valued by society.
It would have been worse in a girls’ school.
I wonder how that “rumor” started. Hell of a rumor.
It likely started with a nasty, cruel girl who figured there’d be no consequence BECAUSE she is a girl. Always believe the woman, you know.
Maybe the Muslims have it right: the testimonial for women equals that of one man.
Testimony of…
The way the story reads is that it was a complete fabrication by the bullies. Also, it was a boys school the allegation of rape did not have to involve a female.
And this is what the New York Board of Education wants the Yeshivas to
emulate. Substantially equivalent? No, thank you.
Bet the family of the expelled kid has more money than Reid’s family?
Yeah, I wondered about that. Was the expelled student been sued by the kid’s estate for defamation / libel / slander?
For that matter, note how everyone is tiptoeing around identifying the students involved. Their actions were tortious and led directly to someone’s death. Why should they not suffer any consequences whatsoever?
That was my first thought not one word in the statement about any of the students who bullied this young man being disciplined in the slightest.
Enjoy the lawsuits, assholes.
Heartbreaking
An administrative screwup if ever there was one.
Why didn’t the parents let him go to school at home, rather than back to the boarding school? If they knew he was being bullied, why did no one pull him out or have him transferred?
Well, add “I” to the oppressed class alphabet soup. This guy was abused to.death becajse be was “I” for “innocuous.”
It has ever been so.
Story corrections: He didn’t “commit” suicide; be was driven to it. Driven thus, trapped in a institution that allowed it. Worse, one claiming to operate loco parentus, in his interest, not theirs.
Apparently, the “It gets better.” folks where nowhere for this kid. Apparently, his particular affliction was inconsequential or deserved, and supporting him no self-aggrandizement for the help.squad.
So, he died in despair. And none of The Authoritah care about that, either.