>> announcer: this is "nightline." tonight, the bullying crisis. a 17-year-old takes his own life at an elite new jersey boarding school. >> he was talking to us about how he grew up he was going to take care of us. >> the school's stunning admission apologizing not doing more for protecting him at a moment when so many young people are struggling with mental health, parents left searching for a solution. >> if jack were sitting here right now he would say "help others. the system needs to change. spread the love." >> plus mika kelly from "friday night lights" to "euphoria." >> tell me everything and the

traumatic childhood you overcame. >> sometimes a woman will do what she has to do to survive. >> how she found forgiveness and became so much more than somebody's girlfriend. >> there's more to the story than who you see me walk down the street with. >> the newest inductees to rock & roll hall of fame including the hip-hop bad girl who knows how to work it. "nightline" will be right back. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ with skyrizi, most people who achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months... had lasting clearance through 1 year. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections, or a lower ability to fight them, may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine or plan to. ♪nothing is everything♪ talk to your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save.

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>> good evening. we begin tonight with the mental health crisis facing so many young people across this country. may is mental health awareness month and we are taking a deeper look at bullying often central to the struggle and in some cases the outcome can be tragic. even leading to suicide. warning, some of the video of a violent bullying incident you are about to see it is disturbing to hear is abc's eva pilgrim. >> the first thing that comes to mind with jack's kindness, love this people. love does immunity. >> love history, politics, dreaming of public service. >> his introductory speech is to be kind to others.

>> police say jack began to be bullied o in his elite boarding school in new jersey, a year long nightmare for jack which ended taking his own life in april 2022. >> our youngest, he always talked to us when how he grew up, he's going to take care of us. >> one year later, these grieving parents are receiving a rare admission to failure to protect jack for months of bullying. seen in this promotional video now saying in a statement on their website they feel tragically short fefelltragically short and unkid behavior and bullying not dell y connections not taken by the school i likely contributed to jack's death. >> shedding a light to keep students safe on campus.

>> a lethal mix of bullying and social media. the tragedy raising the question of accountability and who is responsible for keeping teenagers safe. >> unfortunately children and adolescent pluralists have not learned coping skills yet to deal adequately with life stressors. this lack of coping skills combined with bullying and impulsivity can lead to something like suicide. >> the cdc recently reporting suicide is a second leading cause of death among adolescents ages ten to 14. for jack, his bullying began when an untrue rumor of false claim that jack was a rapist posted anonymously to a nationwide app and conversation were secretly recorded. >> ran for president of house and was elected and two days a

rumor posted online that the new president of dickinson house was a rapwas. >> that's a serious accusation. >> you can imagine for a 16-year-old boy, 17-year-old boy when he was worried that it was permanent but he'd never be able to do anything publicly in public service. and didn't know how he's going to get past it. >> the lawrenceville school acknowledges jack brought that anonymous post to the school's attention in october 2021 which led the school to learn about the rumors of sexual assault in the stair to push do the dean of student offe concluding that jack had not committed sexual assault. but the school admits that it never publicly share the results or told jack about their findings to clear his name. >> reputation is everything as a teenager. so when your reputation is jeopardized, it is just as

tragic as sometimes for a teenager as losing a loved one but humiliation is a big stressor and it's not something we should take lightly and underestimate its impact in teenagers. >> april 30th 2022 of student discipline for bullying jack was expelled for something the school says was unrelated to jack's case, but the school admits they allowed that student to return back to campus largely unsupervised back to the dorm where jack lived. students there bullying jack again. jack took his life at night. >> we know that this came upon him very quickly and he didn't think about the future. he was just in terrible despair and pain. >> i am a clinical psychologist. the typical signs you would look for were not present here. obviously jack was down. i guess you could say situationally depressed because

of this bullying but he did not have mental illness, did not have a drug or alcohol problem, there were no prior attempts. >> the school undertook a five-month investigation to the investigation including were missed opportunities along the way to bring instances of cruelty to the attention of all adults and other instances where the involvement of the adult might've made a difference. adults unaware of the rumors and the circumstances or 11 months. >> they committed to a plan to be against bullying and support to protect the kids who are victims of bullying. we think that's very, very important. >> lawrenceville promising to create policies to spot and stop bullying and agreeing to contribute to multiple nonprofits that focus on bullying and suicide prevention.

jack's parents helping to extend public school bullying protections to all students. >> in new jersey and new york there are established anti-bullying statutes but they do not guard private institutions, they don't are charter schools are parochial schools. >> even when there are laws to protect children's in public school must have come under fire for not doing enough. >> i'm angry and upset with every single one of you guys. you are here to protect the students. >> adriana koch a 14-year-old girl in bay hill new jersey took her own life in february of this year. her death coming to go days after a video of being beaten by classmates in the hallway was posted online. constant bullying and rumors drove his child to take their own life.

>> you know... getting hit in the face with the water bottle didn't hurt adriana. what hurt adriana was the embarrassment and humiliation. they just kept coming at her. >> the school eventually expelled the four students who attacked adriana. the ocean county prosecutor's office ultimately charging all four with assault related charges. adriana's death part of what some are calling a nationwide mental health crisis involving teenage girls. according to the recent cdc report, one in three teenage girls seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021, up nearly 60% from a decade ago. >> we don't know exactly what's causing it. in the school systems, we are locking resources in this rise to demand. >> the acting superintendents

and central regional high school followed all state laws in andreano's situation and deny the school has a problem with violence. >> based on our data alone, it doesn't indicate what's a culture of violence. we don't condone that. >> the acting superintendent saying as of march the action plan underway to enhance and increase awareness of student support services and expand communications with parents and students. adriana's family fired a tort claim with the intent to file a lawsuit against the board of education. >> when i heard about adriana, it was truly experiencing malory's death all over again. >> diane grossman knows the unbearable pain of losing a child to bullying. her daughter mallory took her own life when she was 12 years old after being bullied by other students at her middle school. >> this is not essential

regional problem. this is a cultural and across the board. >> mallory's story is not this light. >> the member of mallory's army a group she cofounded alongside her husband speaking to schools across the country. >> you can learn a lot from kids. >> including adriana kutcher pottery school in 2020. >> we talk about bullying and its behavior and i think that school systems like the checkboxes. i'm disappointed that they heard about mallory, they knew about mallory, they were warned. >> not telling jack's story hoping it saves other lives, forming the jack reed foundation to raise awareness. vehicle why is it so important to share jack's story questioning >> he'd want to protect other children from the things that happened to him. >> he'd say help others, the

system needs to change, spread the love. i can hear him saying "spread the love, mama." >> thanks to eva. anyone struggling with thoughts of suicide, free help is available. text or call the crisis line at 988. up next, she rose to fame and "friday night lights." she's opening up about the trauma she faced as a child. my interview with actress minka kelly. emerge tremfyant®. with tremfya®, most people saw 90% clearer skin at 16 weeks. the majority of people saw 90% clearer skin even at 5 years. tremfya® is the first medication of its kind also approved for adults with active psoriatic arthritis... ...and it's 6 doses a year after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections

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>> you know minka kelly is a glamorous holiday fixture from friday night lights to euphoria

but now coming to terms with her very traumatic and impoverished childhood and she is sharing a deeply personal account of resilience. it is her new memoir, and she joins us now. >> thank you for having me. >> what do you think the larger lessons are for people who want to dive into your childhood? >> i understand from an outsiders perspective that they would perceive it that way. but for me, it was also beautiful. i was deeply loved and i also had a lot of fun. nothing is black-and-white and there is a reason why i start the book with the thing that i carry the most shame about for most of my life. >> which was a peep show dance you are trying to do in some ways because you wrote your mother who had been a stripper and struggled with drugs and alcohol had taught you that

beauty and was power -- >> our currency is our looks. exactly. sometimes a woman will do what she has to do to survive and to put a roof over her head and food in her mouth. you'll see it's more complex than me choosing to do that. i didn't have a choice. >> you write about understanding your mother had tried self-harm and that was real painful. >> the painful part was learning more about my mom because she's not here anymore and learning things about my mom that i didn't really know or remember and just different levels of grieving throughout that process was hard but also beautiful and i feel free of those things now and i feel relief because she's free of those things now and her story deserves to be told. how did you come to terms with how your parents raised you. >> everyone deserves grace. no one chooses to be an abusive parent. >> i'm here is how you deal now with this idea of a flawed

parent who you still love. >> i don't think i never met a parent who wasn't flawed. >> fair enough. exactly. they are human, it turns out. >> the older i get the more i understand that. and my biological father and i are very close now. he is my buddy. it was... the most important lesson for me was to accept not just him, but everyone as they are. >> you said you wanted to hide so much of what you wrote about away. what made you want to share it? >> this is bigger than me being embarrassed, sharing stories that i wouldn't have shared five years ago. but sharing them releases the power they might've had over me. >> you have this improbable rise to fame. you know, obviously nbc's "friday night lights" a huge fan favorite but i know you were disappointed that some of the headline coming out your book were about the friction that was on set. i understand you think that was

pretty much taken out of context. how do you remember your time on friday night lights? >> friday night lights changed my life. it was wonderful. i hit the jackpot with that show. also very complex. i was dealing with losing a mother to cancer. and so that was hard. you are going to make bad choices and at that time in my life but i was taught to be tough and to be independent and did not need help and to not ask for help and also what i learned was to prioritize men in your life. i prioritized the boy in my life at the time. why i was upset taken out of context is i wasn't talking about anyone else in my life and my side of the street. >> in many ways i see you having read this book as such an independent woman but you are often known as being so-and-so's girlfriend, somebody high-profile's girlfriend. how do you put that into context now? >> i'm excited to write my own narrative. there is more to this story to me than who you see me walk down

the street with. and to be honest, some stories n where thatate. sh a good ki stuff i on a different path now. >> fabulous. you have done so many roles since and most recently you've been on "euphoria." let's take a look at one of the fun scenes. >> the idea that was anyone ever in the world who would want to settle down and marry me was... >> you are lying. >> no! i was literally the girl that everyone and their mothers used to say, no one would ever settle down and marry her, god help we ever did. >> why would they say that? >> because i was messy. and i love to fight. >> i'm not a mess but i do love a fight. totally underrated. >> it is hbo's "euphoria" and you play a wealthy mom was had a

bit of a troubled past. what do you take from this character, either real life are pe i had a lot of fun being the older wiser one in the room for a change and i also... i was excited for a character that would give a younger girl permission to be a little bit messy and learn these lessons now. i'm really proud to have been a part of that show. >> minka kelly, thank you so much. "tell me everything" is a powerful story and it's out now. >> thank you. >> a look next, chaka one artist landing a spot in the rock & roll hall of fame who else is in the class of 2023? ♪ ♪ now, there's skyrizi. with skyrizi 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months, after just 2 doses.

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>> finally tonight, you've got to have faith. ♪ ♪ the late george michael is among this year's inductees into the rock & roll hall of fame. a class that has a little something for everyone. that includes country legend willie nelson who celebrated his 90th birthday. the creator and longtime host of "soul train" don cornelius. rapper missy elliott placing the path is the first female hip-hop star in the artist 'spot in cleveland for that is "nightline." we will see you right here same time tomorrow. thanks for staying up with us.

good night, america.