Family Of Bullied Middletown Teen Girl Seeks Gag Order In Lawsuit

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — The wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the family of Jocelyn Walters against the Middletown school district is proceeding in the courts.

Walters is the 14-year-old Middletown girl who died in a suicide in September 2022. She had just started her sophomore year at Middletown High School North when she took her own life.

Her parents, Fred and Solangie Walters, sued the Middletown school district last May. The Walters say they repeatedly told High School North principal (then Patricia Vari-Cartier) and two North guidance counselors their daughter was being bullied.

Middletown North found their HIB complaints "unfounded," according to both the parents and legal statements from the district itself.

The parents also sued the girl allegedly doing most of the bullying, as well as her older sister, who they named; see below. They also sued a mental health therapist who was treating their daughter. The parents say that man, a nurse practitioner, doubled Jocelyn's dosage of Zoloft in late August 2022.

Two weeks later — just one week into the new school year — on Sept. 9, 2022, Walters took her own life in her childhood bedroom of her home. She was a soccer player. She had a boyfriend. The year prior, the couple had been voted Homecoming king and queen in the freshman court.

It was her father who found her and tried, unsuccessfully, to save her life.

"She was my mini me," Fred Walters said Tuesday, speaking to Patch. "I will never stop fighting for my two girls, Jocelyn or her older sister, Keira, who has not recovered from this and is not doing well."

"In the two years since this happened, I have not stopped networking, consulting, talking to other parents," he continued. "Teen suicide is an epidemic in this nation."

Her parents say the district failed to take action. The Walters say it was one specific girl that was bullying their daughter — yet Middletown North placed the two girls in some of the same classes at the start of sophomore year, even after it was aware the bullying was occurring.

On Monday, Eric Harrison, a lawyer from Methfessel & Werbel law firm representing the Middletown school district, filed a request before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Chad Cagan, asking to make most of the evidence that will be found in this case confidential and not open to the public.

What will likely remain private will be Walters' medical records, her school records from the Middletown school district, as well as other key evidence, such as text messages or social media messages.

"Because this case involves sensitive confidential information regarding a minor, the parties have negotiated and fully executed the enclosed Discovery Confidentiality Order, which we would ask the court to enter at its earliest convenience," read the March 31 request.

It was signed by lawyers for both the Middletown school district and a lawyer for the Walters family.

"I am trying to protect my wife and my older daughter," Fred Walters told Patch Tuesday.

In their lawsuit filed May 7, 2024, the Walters named:

• The Middletown Board of Education
• Former superintendent Mary Ellen Walker
• High School North principal Patricia Vari-Cartier
• Assistant principal Chris Regenio
• High School North guidance counselors Ryan McCabe and Jacquelin Duca
• Mark Sedlak, a psychiatric nurse at Hazlet-based Rising Swell Mental Health, LLC and who was treating Jocelyn for depression.
• The family has also sued the girl they said was doing the bullying, She is identified in the lawsuit only as J.M. Her older sister, Mae McEwan, was named as a defendant. The elder McEwan was older than 18 when she sent mean and bullying text messages to his daughter, said Walters' father.
• The lawsuit also named John/Jan Doe students 1-10.
• The lawsuit also named a social media page called “MHSN Clowns,” since taken down, that was created to mock Middletown North teens.

Walters was being treated by Sedlak, a nurse practitioner at Rising Swell Mental Health in Hazlet.

Jocelyn had a first suicide attempt earlier in 2022 and was hospitalized for it, said her father. After that, she met with Sedlak.

On Aug. 26, 2022 "my daughter met with him for 40 minutes. I was not in the meeting. He doubled her prescription for an anti-depressant, Zoloft. Within not even two weeks, she was gone," said her father.

"I get a text from him later (after she died) saying 'My condolences.' A text."

A lawyer for the two sisters submitted a legal response in June, asserting the sisters "are not responsible for and did not cause alleged bullying of any kind as alleged in the complaint (the lawsuit)."

Middletown school district responds

On June 24, the Middletown school district submitted a legal document in response to the lawsuit. It denied the claims made by the Walters and said, in part:

"Jocelyn’s tragic death followed instances of conflict between Jocelyn and various peers. Complaints were made on behalf of Jocelyn and K.W. by their parents, as an HIB complaint was made on behalf of another student against K.W. All of these complaints were appropriately investigated and addressed."

The district also said:

"Jocelyn, K.W., and other students allegedly engaged in online harassment against each other and that the district, when those instances were brought to its attention, investigated and addressed them appropriately ... The district attempted to work with the parents to address their concerns. The plaintiffs and other parents and students filed HIB complaints against each other; the district investigated and addressed those complaints appropriately."

"The Middletown School District enacted and implemented an appropriate anti-bullying policy ... The defendants appropriately responded to all HIB complaints ... Admitted insofar as Jocelyn, K.W., and other students allegedly engaged in online harassment against each other and that the District, when those instances were brought to its attention, investigated and addressed them appropriately. Otherwise denied."

The Middletown school district is also trying to prevent economic damages from being paid to the Walters family.

In its legal filings, the district argues the family is not entitled to such a pay-out. In 2023, the parents of Mallory Grossman received a $9.1-million settlement from the Rockaway Township school district after their daughter, 12, died of a suicide. Mallory's parents say she was bullied in text, cyber messages and in school. They say Copeland Middle School administrators were aware the bullying was going on, and did not do enough to prevent their daughter’s death.

Walters said he has been talking to Grossman's parents; Grossman's mother called him Tuesday morning.

NJ.com did a long interview with Walters' parents, and published the story Tuesday.

“The school did nothing but attempt to defend itself,” Walters told the NJ.com reporter. It “never defended my children.”

He said in March 2022, when Jocelyn had her first suicide attempt, he personally met with a vice principal and two guidance counselors at North. He showed them screenshots of messages and social media pages targeting Jocelyn.

"It was a Zoom meeting," he said Tuesday. "They did nothing."

Initial Patch report: Parents Of Bullied Girl Who Died By Suicide Sue Middletown District (June 2024)

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