Elizabeth and Bill Reid ask lawmakers to protect students and require private schools to adopt an anti-bullying policy, four years after their 17-year-old son died by suicide. Photo by Ryan Conway/NJ State House News Service

By Ryan Conway
NJ State House News Service

TRENTON, N.J. – Lawmakers unanimously moved to advance anti-bullying protections for private school students on Monday after the testimony of two parents whose son took his life four years ago.

Elizabeth and Bill Reid asked members of the Assembly Education Committee to send the  “Jack Reid Law: Protect All Students Act” to the Assembly floor. The bill would require all private schools to adopt an anti-bullying policy.

The Reids said they want to make sure no parent has to endure the pain they experienced, and that all students should feel safe.

“We are here for every student in New Jersey who remains unprotected by a law,” Elizabeth Reid said. “Every student deserves to feel safe, respected and heard, regardless of where they attend school. Every parent should know their report will be taken seriously.”

Jack Reid was a 17-year-old junior at the Lawrenceville School when he died by suicide in his dorm in 2022. His mother testified that peers were yelling taunts outside his dorm window, after another student spread baseless rumors that he was a rapist.

A year later, the school website  “acknowledges that bullying and unkind behavior, and actions taken or not taken by the school, likely contributed to Jack’s death,” and pledged corrective actions.

Bill Reid told the committee, “The public school students already have important statewide protections, nonpublic school students do not. Where a child attends school should not determine if their bullying is reported and investigated.”

Elizabeth Reid testified Monday that the Lawrenceville School failed Jack, and never told him he was exonerated of the rape accusation.

“Our boy died never knowing that he had been completely cleared,” she said. “Jack was not a troubled child, he was not mentally ill, he had friends, a close family, and every protective factor in place. But on that night, no one warned him, checked on him, or defended him.”

Elizabeth and Bill Reid have launched the Jack Reid Foundation, which advocates “to foster a culture of kindness, empathy, and respect in educational environments.”

In October, New York state, where Jack and his family are from, adopted the Jack Reid Law, with the intention of bolstering anti-harassment protections for private school students. Bill Reid said Monday that only seven states have similar mandated protections for kids in both public and private schools, and said that he hopes New Jersey will be the eighth.

The bill was unanimously moved by the Assembly Education Committee.

Assembly Member Dawn Fantasia, a Republican from Franklin Borough (Sussex), said that as a former school principal, she believes that this bill could actually be an improvement over New Jersey’s public school anti-bullying law, because in public schools the child has to prove that a child was mocked over a distinguishing characteristic of theirs.

“As a school principal, I believe that including that requirement in the law was a short sighted mistake,” Fantasia said. “In this circumstance, Jack was persistently humiliated, threatened and isolated, but there was no distinguishing characteristic.”

Assemblywoman Rosy Bagolie, a Democrat from Livingston, said that she was moved by the Reids’ testimony and that it served as a reminder that parenting is a job that never really stops.

“Our kids are 17, and we think we’ve almost made it. I keep saying they’re gonna be adults in January!” Bagolie said. “And we are not realizing the burdens they may be facing everyday.”

---

Ryan Conway is a student at The College Of New Jersey, majoring journalism with a minor in communications.