A New Jersey bully brutally asked his friends “not to make a controversy out of it” after he drove a fellow student to suicide, a lawsuit alleges.
14-year-old Jocelyn Walters tragically committed suicide in September 2022 after months of bullying and abuse by girls her parents say were once her friends.
Her parents, Fred and Solangie Walters, have since filed a lawsuit against a number of defendants, including her teachers, nurses and the school administration, alleging they failed to address the bullying and prevent the tragedy.
In their lawsuit, they allege that one girl, identified only as JM, led the bullying and sent disgusting text messages before Jocelyn’s suicide.
An example of this is the day Jocelyn was in the hospital after a previous failed suicide attempt. JM callously told a group, “I’m really going to keep challenging her.”
Jocelyn Walters, 14, tragically died by suicide in September 2022 after months of bullying and abuse
Jocelyn’s father (pictured together) and mother have filed a lawsuit against several defendants, including her teachers and the school board, alleging they ignored the bullying.
The Walters say Jocelyn committed suicide after a “long-term and persistent pattern of intimidation, bullying and abuse directed at her,” and that the defendants did “nothing” to stop it.
In addition to the suspects named, the Walters’ complaint also names ten individuals, namely John and Jane Does, who “directly harassed, intimidated, bullied and/or otherwise abused” Jocelyn prior to her death.
They alleged that the girls had brutally thrown Jocelyn out of the group chats and isolated her, and that on the day she died they had told the group: ‘She’s dead, stop making controversy about this.’
Jocelyn’s parents say they are still haunted by their daughter’s death. They said that when the teen entered high school in 2021, she was a popular and athletic girl with ambitions to become a lawyer.
“Jocelyn was the student you wanted. She was the teammate you wanted. The player you wanted. She was always there. The first one on the field. The last one off,” Fred said. Fox news.
a GoFundMe described Jocelyn after her passing as a music lover who was a huge fan of ‘The Smashing Pumpkins’ and was ‘beautiful inside and out’.
A talented athlete, Jocelyn’s father said she was “the teammate you wanted. The player you wanted. She was always there. The first one on the field. The last one off.”
Fred Walters said he even hosted his daughter’s bullies in his home, and claims they lured her into their group of friends before brutally ostracizing and bullying her.
But Fred says that his daughter was accepted into a group of friends that school year, but that they brutally excluded and bullied her, both in real life and online.
The lawsuit names one person, identified only as JM, who Jocelyn’s parents say was friends with her but then threw her out and tried to isolate her from others at school.
They alleged that JM would taunt Jocelyn on social media, share her personal information online, kick her out of group chats, and remove her from group photos on social media.
Walters’ lawsuit alleges that there was “repeated abuse” but that school officials failed to act despite “continuous and repeated complaints” from Jocelyn’s family to the school board and the district.
“The high school, the board/district, and the board defendants were aware of this conduct and did nothing to protect Jocelyn from harm,” the complaint states.
Jocelyn’s loved ones described her as “beautiful inside and out,” who “gave to the success of everyone around her and wanted the world to be happy”
Fred told Fox News that when his daughter was in high school, she became friends with JM. He lured her into the group by telling her private things and including her in his circle of friends.
“This group of children slept at my house between Christmas and New Year’s,” he continued.
‘(But) sometime in January, as far as I know, there was some sort of text exchange… in a group chat, and then this girl just seemed to want to push her out of it.
“And what I understood before that, and even more so after that, was that this seemed to be the modus operandi of this girl.”
Jocelyn attempted suicide for the first time in March 2022, but she survived and was hospitalized.
Fred said that even while Jocelyn was recovering in the hospital, JM incited others at her school to bully her again. He admitted that the bullying landed her in intensive care, with her asking herself, “I wonder if she’s going to do anything back.”
“I am going to continue to challenge her, quite frankly, until she actually does something that will get her in trouble,” the text reads, according to the lawsuit.
Jocelyn’s parents accuse school officials of ignoring their pleas to stop the bullying
In August 2022, the month before Jocelyn’s death, the lawsuit alleges that a nurse at a psychiatric facility “negligently doubled Jocelyn’s antidepressants without knowing what dosage she was taking.”
It also says the nurse “failed to notify Jocelyn’s parents of her emergency.”
Fred said that the day his daughter committed suicide, he opened her bedroom door and found her dead. He felt that the extra medication was “a very, very big part” of the tragedy.
The lawsuit alleges that the day before and on the day of her death, Jocelyn visited the school nurse, who then “failed to take appropriate action given Jocelyn’s medical history and also failed to notify Jocelyn’s parents of these visits.”
“Hours later, on September 9, 2022, Jocelyn committed suicide,” the lawsuit states.
‘Immediately afterward, JM sent the following message about Jocelyn’s death: “[s]He is dead. Stop making controversies about this.”
Although Middletown High School North informed Jocelyn’s parents that they were investigating allegations that she was a victim of bullying, they later sent a letter dismissing the allegations.
“After careful consideration of the evidence presented during the investigation, the District has found no evidence that Jocelyn was the target of the act of harassment or bullying under investigation,” the letter said.
Fox News reported that the school board and school district have a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.