A New Jersey bully brutally told friends to ‘stop making a controversy out of it’ after they drove a fellow student to suicide, a lawsuit has claimed.
Jocelyn Walters, 14, tragically took her own life in September 2022 after enduring months of bullying and abuse, at the hands of 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 school district, alleging they failed to clamp down on the bullying and prevent the tragedy.
In their lawsuit, they allege that one girl named only as J.M. led the bullying, and included sickening text messages she sent before Jocelyn’s suicide.
This included one on the day Jocelyn was hospitalized following a previous failed suicide attempt, where J.M. callously told a group: ‘I’m honestly going to try and keep instigating her.’
Jocelyn Walters, 14, tragically died by suicide in September 2022 after enduring months of bullying and abuse
Jocelyn’s father (pictured together) and mother have launched a lawsuit against a number of defendants including her teachers and school board, claiming they ignored the bullying
The Walters say Jocelyn took her own life after an ‘extended and persistent pattern of harassment, intimidation, bullying and abuse directed against her’, which they claim the defendants ‘did nothing’ to stop.
Alongside the named defendants, the Walters’ lawsuit also lists 10 John and Jane Does who directly ‘harassed, intimidated, bullied and/or otherwise abused Jocelyn’ before her death.
They claimed the girls viciously cast Jocelyn out of group chats and isolated her, and alleged that on the day she died, J.M. told the group: ‘She died stop making controversy about it.»
Jocelyn’s parents said they are still haunted by their daughter’s passing, and said that when the teen joined high school in 2021, she was a popular and athletic girl who had ambitions to become a lawyer.
‘Jocelyn was the student that you wanted. She was the teammate that you wanted. The player that you wanted. She was always there. First one on the field. Last one off,’ Fred told Fox News.
A GoFundMe from the time that Jocelyn passed away described her 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 that you wanted. The player that you wanted. She was always there. First one on the field. Last one off’
Fred Walters said he even hosted his daughter’s bullies in his home, and claims they lured her into their friend group before brutally casting her out and bullying her
But during that school year, Fred said his daughter was welcomed into a friend group only for them to brutally cut her out and bully her, both in person and online.
The lawsuit singles out one person, named only as J.M., who Jocelyn’s parents say befriended her before casting her out and attempting to isolate her from others at school.
They claimed J.M. would taunt Jocelyn on social media, share her personal information online, kick her out of group chats, and crop her out of group pictures on social media.
Walters’ lawsuit alleges that this was a ‘repeated pattern of abuse’, but school officials did nothing despite ‘ongoing and repeated complaints’ from Jocelyn’s family to the school board and 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 adds.
Jocelyn’s loved ones described her as ‘beautiful inside and out’ who ‘rooted for the success of everyone around her and wanted to see the world happy’
Fred told Fox News that when his daughter joined high school, she made friends with J.M., who lured her into the group by confessing private things to her and bringing her into her circle.
‘This group of kids actually slept in my house between Christmas and New Year’s,’ he continued.
‘(But) somewhere in January, from what I understand, there might have been some sort of text exchange… in a group chat, and then this girl just seemed to want to push her out.
‘And what I understood before, and even more so after, was this seemed to be this girl’s M.O.’
Jocelyn first attempted suicide in March 2022, but survived the attempt and was hospitalized.
Fred said that even while Jocelyn was recovering in hospital, J.M. goaded others at her school into targeting her again, and appeared to admit that the bullying landed her in the ICU as she questioned ‘I wonder if she’s going to do anything back.’
‘I’m honestly going to try and keep instigating her until she actually does something to me that I can get her in trouble for,’ the text added, according to the lawsuit.
Jocelyn’s parents accuse school officials of ignoring their pleas to bring the bullying to an end
In August 2022, the month before Jocelyn’s death, the lawsuit claims a nurse at a mental health clinic ‘negligently doubled Jocelyn’s antidepressant medication without knowing the dosage she was taking.’
It adds that the nurse also ‘failed to notify Jocelyn’s parents of her emergent condition.’
Fred said that the day his daughter committed suicide, he opened her bedroom door to find her deceased, and felt that the increase in medication ‘was a very, very big component’ to the tragedy.
On the day before and the day of Jocelyn’s death, the lawsuit claims she visited the school nurse, who then ‘failed to take appropriate action given Jocelyn’s history and further failed to alert Jocelyn’s parents of this/these visits.’
‘Hours later, on September 9, 2022, Jocelyn took her own life,’ the lawsuit states.
‘Immediately thereafter, J.M. texted the following regarding Jocelyn’s death: «[s]he died stop making controversy about it.»‘
Although Middletown High School North told Jocelyn’s parents it was investigating allegations she may have been the victim of bullying, it subsequently sent a letter brushing it off.
‘After careful consideration of evidence yielded from the investigation, the District did not find any evidence that Jocelyn was the target of the investigated act of harassment, intimidation, or bullying,’ the letter states.
Fox News reported that the school board and school district have a policy of not commenting on pending litigation.
