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This article discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
Jocelyn Walters, a 14-year-old triathlete from New Jersey and a huge Smashing Pumpkins fan, committed suicide on September 9, 2022, after enduring months of harassment and bullying from her peers.
Now Jocelyn's parents, Fred and Solangy “Solly” Walters, are suing the Middletown Township School District, the Board of Education and other defendants, including Jocelyn's teachers and a nurse at a local psychiatric clinic, alleging that they failed to take appropriate steps to prevent the 14-year-old girl from taking her own life.
The lawsuit also names as defendants 10 John Doe and Jane Doe who “harassed, threatened, bullied and otherwise abused Jocelyn.”
“Jocelyn was the student everyone wanted. She was the teammate everyone wanted. She was the player everyone wanted. She was always there. First on the field, last off,” Fred Walters told Fox News Digital.
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Jocelyn Walters committed suicide on September 9, 2022, at the age of 14. (Provided by family)
By the time she entered high school in 2021, Jocelyn had dreams of studying law at the University of Notre Dame, but those dreams were dashed when she faced intense bullying and harassment from other students, both in person and online.
“Jocelyn's suicide occurred after a prolonged and relentless pattern of harassment, intimidation, bullying and abuse against her that took place during and after the 2021/2022 school year at the high school,” the lawsuit states. “The repeated pattern of abuse occurred despite Plaintiffs and others making ongoing and repeated similar complaints to the Board/District and Board Defendants.”
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Jocelyn Walters was a star goalkeeper for New Jersey's touring soccer team. (Courtesy of family)
The lawsuit alleges that the bully, identified only as JM, tormented Jocelyn by sharing her personal information, taunting her on private social media web pages, excluding her from group chats, cutting out her face from photos posted on social media and attempting to isolate her from her friends and boyfriend.
“The high school, the board/district and the Board Defendants were aware of this conduct but did nothing to protect Jocelyn from harm,” the lawsuit states.
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Jocelyn Walters was a triathlete and star goalkeeper for a touring soccer team. (Courtesy of family)
Fred Walters said he had hosted Jocelyn's bullies, who were once her friends, for sleepovers under his roof before they began bullying his daughter.
“This group of girls came to stay over at my house over Christmas and New Years,” he explained, “and from what I understand, sometime in January, there was some kind of text exchange in the group chat where the girl tried to kick her out. And from what I understand, that seemed to be a pattern of behavior for this girl. And then I understood even more after that, that this seemed to be a pattern of behavior for this girl.”
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Fred Walters alleged that after JM had made Jocelyn feel comfortable confessing things or showing weaknesses, JM would attack her and try to isolate her from their mutual group of friends.
Jocelyn Walters attended the University of Notre Dame and dreamed of becoming a lawyer. (Courtesy of family)
Jocelyn first attempted suicide in March 2022, a few months before her death. After her first suicide attempt, she was hospitalized and treated.
“'To be honest, I'm going to keep provoking her…'”
— A message from Jocelyn's alleged bully
“While Jocelyn was in the hospital…JM posted about Jocelyn in a group chat the next day: 'I wonder if she's going to get back at me…I honestly am going to keep bashing her until she actually does something to me that will embarrass her,'” the lawsuit alleges.
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The lawsuit further alleges that after Jocelyn was hospitalized in August 2022, she was referred to a nurse at a psychiatric clinic, who “negligently doubled the amount of antidepressant medication Jocelyn was taking without knowing about it” and “failed to inform Jocelyn's parents of Jocelyn's emergency condition.”
A lawsuit filed by Jocelyn Walter's parents alleges that the 14-year-old girl was subjected to relentless bullying that school officials did nothing to address. (Provided by family)
Jocelyn had reported the visits to the school nurse the day before and the day of her death, but “the nurse failed to take appropriate action given Jocelyn's history and failed to inform Jocelyn's parents about the visits,” the lawsuit alleges.
“A few hours later, on September 9, 2022, Jocelyn took her own life,” the lawsuit states. “Shortly thereafter, JM texted Jocelyn about her death:[s]He's dead, so stop arguing about it.”
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Jocelyn Walters reported to the school nurse the day before and the day of her death, the family's lawsuit alleges. (Provided by family)
Jocelyn's family alleges that she, her sister, parents and friends reported the bullying she was experiencing both at and outside of school, but their concerns were ignored, and school officials allegedly failed to punish students who participated in the harassment that led to Jocelyn's suicide.
Following Jocelyn's death, on Oct. 26, 2022, Middletown North High School sent a letter to her parents acknowledging that Jocelyn “may have been the victim of bullying behavior” and that the school had begun an investigation into these allegations.
“[T]The district found no evidence that Joslyn was the target of any of the harassing, intimidating or bullying conduct covered by the investigation.”
— Letter to the Walters family from Middletown North High School
“After careful review of the evidence generated by the investigation, the District has found no evidence that Jocelyn was the target of the harassing, intimidating or bullying behaviors investigated,” the letter states.
Read the letter:
“Bullying is not going to stop easily unless appropriate discipline is administered,” Walters' lawyer, Jeffrey Youngman, told Fox News Digital.
“Kids respond to discipline,” he said. “Discipline is a personal deterrent and a broader deterrent. But if you don't provide any discipline at all, it just encourages kids' behavior. And that's what happened here. No one was disciplined.”
The day Jocelyn died started like any other school day. Fred Walters had dropped his two daughters off at school that morning and gone to work. After school, Jocelyn's sister went to a concert with a friend, but Walters couldn't get in touch with Jocelyn, despite calling and texting her.
Old photo of Jocelyn Walters (provided by family)
He assumed she had been taking a nap in her room because she was busy with sports and her job at the local beach boardwalk. She was also feeling fatigued due to an increased dose of medication. However, when Fred Walters opened her bedroom door that afternoon, he found her dead.
“I felt like the medicine was a huge factor.”
Fred Walters
“That's an image that I'm trying so hard to put out there and from the beginning I felt like the drugs were a huge factor,” he said.
The lawsuit notes that while the national suicide rate for 10-24 year olds didn't change significantly between 2001 and 2007, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recorded a 62% increase in suicides in this age group between 2007 and 2021. Among girls, 30% say they have seriously considered suicide, up 60% since 2011, according to CDC data.
According to CDC data, 30% of girls said they had seriously considered suicide, a 60% increase from 2011 (Family Handout).
The complaint also states:[t]Despite the lack of compelling evidence that the benefits of antidepressants outweigh the risks and treatment-associated suicide remaining a major concern, antidepressant use in children and adolescents has increased significantly since 2005.”
The school board and district said they do not comment on pending litigation.
The committee instituted a cell phone ban in schools across the district on June 26, citing research showing that when students are barred from cell phone use for the entire day, their academic performance improves, suicidal thoughts drop significantly, harassment and bullying decrease, and they become more socially active.
Jocelyn Walters playing soccer as a young child (Courtesy of family)
“We intend to respond to these allegations solely through the legal process,” said Eric Harrison, an attorney for the school district and board of education.
Fred Walters believes failures “at every step” led to Jocelyn's death.
“I'm fighting for my daughter and through this all I've seen is so much failure.”
Fred Walters
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“These girls started trying to kick her out, cancel her enrollment, and the adults in the room aren't doing their jobs and following really failed policies and politics and paperwork to avoid their own accountability,” he said. “I'm fighting for my daughter, and all I see with this is a lot of failure… and then there are other parents who come to me with issues that aren't being addressed because the parents are isolated.”
Now, Walters wants to continue preserving his daughter's name and memory while pursuing justice: He's founded a nonprofit called 99 Smiles, which aims to normalize conversations and expand resources around youth mental health.