New Jersey school superintendent points to dead student's family history after viral beating video

Berkeley Township Central Regional High School Superintendent Triantafillos Parlapanides this week asserted that the school had offered assistance to deceased student Adriana Kuch and pointed to familial trauma as a potential factor in her suicide.

Kuch, 14, took her own life two days following the publication of an online video that show her receiving a violent beating from other students. The school has come under fire for not notifying the police of the altercation.

In an email to the Daily Mail, Parlapanides appeared to blame Kuch's mother's suicide on an affair her father, Michael Kuch, had. The superintendent contended that the school had offered assistance to Adriana throughout her academic career, asserting that a decline in her wellbeing, grades, and choices manifested in the aftermath of the affair.

"After [Adriana's] mother's suicide since her father was having an affiar [sic] at the end of her 6th grade. Her father married the woman he had an affair with and moved her into the house," Parlapanides wrote to the outlet. "Her grades and choices declined in 7th and 8th grade. We offered her drug rehab and mental services on 5 occasions but father refused every time."

Michael Kuch denied that the school ever offered "drugs counseling" and railed against Parlapanides's narrative. 

"I don't know how to respond to this insane deflection," he said. "This guy is a piece of s**t."

Speaking to the New York Post, Kuch described the superintendent's response as "pretty much blaming [Adriana]."

"My daughter was attacked in your school and you did nothing," he continued. "And now you want to blame this on everyone else except yourself because you failed and you suck at your job."

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.