A New Jersey stalker brutally told his friends to “stop making a controversy out of this” after driving a fellow student to suicide, a lawsuit claims.
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.
Since then, her parents, Fred and Solangie Walters, have filed a lawsuit against several defendants, including her teachers, nurses and the school district, alleging they failed to take drastic action against the bullying or prevent the tragedy.
In their lawsuit, they allege that a girl identified only as JM directed the harassment and included disgusting text messages she sent before Jocelyn’s suicide.
This included one on the day Jocelyn was hospitalized after a previous failed suicide attempt, where JM cruelly told a group, “I’m honestly going to try and keep egging her on.”
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 filed a lawsuit against several defendants, including her teachers and the school board, alleging they ignored the bullying.
The Walters say Jocelyn took her own life after a “prolonged and persistent pattern of harassment, intimidation, bullying and abuse directed at her,” which they say the defendants “did nothing” to stop.
In addition to the named defendants, Walters’ lawsuit also lists 10 John and Jane Doe defendants who directly “harassed, intimidated, bullied, and/or otherwise abused Jocelyn” prior to her death.
They claimed the girls brutally kicked Jocelyn out of group chats and isolated her, and alleged that on the day she died, JM told the group, “She died, stop making a controversy about it.”
Jocelyn’s parents said they are still haunted by their daughter’s passing and said that when the teenager joined high school in 2021, she was a popular and athletic girl who had ambitions of becoming 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 to leave,” Fred said. Fox News.
TO GoFundMe From the moment Jocelyn passed away, he described her as a music lover, a huge fan of ‘The Smashing Pumpkins’ and was ‘beautiful inside and out’.
Jocelyn was a talented athlete and her 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 to leave.”
Fred Walters said he even welcomed his daughter’s bullies into his home, and claims they lured her into their group of friends before brutally ousting her and harassing her.
But during that school year, Fred said his daughter was welcomed into a group of friends only to be brutally excluded and bullied, both in person and online.
The lawsuit points to a person, identified only as JM, who Jocelyn’s parents say befriended her before expelling her and trying to isolate her from others at school.
They claimed JM would mock Jocelyn on social media, share her personal information online, kick her out of group chats and cut her out of group photos on social media.
Walters’ lawsuit alleges there was a “repeated pattern of abuse,” but school officials did nothing despite Jocelyn’s family’s “continuous and repeated complaints” 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 “encouraged success in everyone around her and wanted to see the world happy.”
Fred told Fox News that when his daughter joined high school, she befriended JM, who lured her into the group by confessing private things to her and bringing her into his circle.
“This group of kids slept at my house between Christmas and New Year’s,” he continued.
‘(But) sometime 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.
“And what I understood before, and even more so after, was that this seemed to be this girl’s modus operandi.”
Jocelyn first attempted suicide in March 2022, but survived the attempt and was hospitalized.
Fred said that even as Jocelyn was recovering in the hospital, JM incited others at her school to attack her again, and seemed to admit that the bullying landed her in the ICU while wondering, “I wonder if she’s going to do anything in return.”
“I will honestly try to keep pestering her until she actually does something to me that could get her in trouble,” the lawsuit said.
Jocelyn’s parents accuse school officials of ignoring their pleas to end the bullying.
In August 2022, the month before Jocelyn died, the lawsuit claims a nurse at a mental health clinic “negligently doubled Jocelyn’s antidepressant medication without knowing the dosage she was taking.”
She added that the nurse also “failed to notify Jocelyn’s parents of her emergency condition.”
Fred said that on the day his daughter committed suicide, he opened her bedroom door to find her dead, and he felt the increase in medication “was a very, very big component” of the tragedy.
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 after, JM texted the following message regarding Jocelyn’s death: “(She) died, stop making a controversy about it.”
Although Middletown High School North told Jocelyn’s parents it was investigating allegations that she may have been a victim of bullying, it later sent a letter dismissing the matter.
“After careful consideration of the evidence obtained from the investigation, the District found no 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.
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