Fox ‘Outnumbered’ hosts break down discussing bullying scandal

The host and guests on Fox’s “Outnumbered” became visibly emotional on air Friday as they discussed the heart-wrenching testimonies from bullied students at a troubled New Jersey school district.

“This is so hard to watch,” guest and political commentator Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery said tearfully after the panel viewed clips of students from the Central Regional School District describing their harrowing experiences at a school board meeting Thursday night.

“I can’t imagine feeling so unheard and so unseen,” host Emily Compagno agreed, her voice trembling.

“These poor children … I can’t imagine what their parents feel.”

In one of the clips the group watched, a student from Central Regional High School in Bayville sobbed openly as they described leaving school feeling “so scared and so threatened” by bullies.

The school board meeting, which also included raw, frustrated testimonies from parents and other local community members, was the district’s first since Adriana Kuch, 14, took her own life on Feb. 3, two days after she was beaten at CRHS and a video of the incident was shared on the internet.

In the two weeks since Adriana’s death, the school district has come under intense scrutiny over its alleged failure to address the pervasive bullying issue.

“Outnumbered” guest and Fox Business anchor Dagen McDowell told her fellow panelists to turn their “sadness into rage.”

“These people in this school district did nothing [to address the bullying],” she said tightly.

McDowell also called out Dr. Triantafillos Parlapanides, the former superintendent who resigned after he told the Daily Mail that Adriana’s suicide had more to do with her alleged drug use and her father’s affair than the school’s failure to act.

“After [Adriana] killed herself … he publicly tried to blame that child’s parents. He talked publicly … and revealed details about this child’s father’s life,” she lamented disbelievingly.

The panel was quick to point out how bullying also continued on social media, with Kennedy calling the combination of in-person and online taunting “relentless.”

The mom of two spoke about her own experience struggling to get help for her daughter’s bullying issues, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as the source of youngsters’ social upsets.

“Kids forgot how to treat each other [during the lockdowns],” she insisted.

“[Schools] got $190 billion from the federal government and they have not provided adequate resources, and shame on every school district that is creating victims like this.”

Panelist Dr. Marc Siegel, a professor at NYU’s Langone Medical Center, referenced troubling CDC statistics that indicated “56 percent of girls in the last year expressed deep sadness, [and] one out of three [girls] threatened suicide.”

Siegel agreed with Kennedy’s assessment that social media and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated young people’s despair.

“I’m so glad that I didn’t grow up with [social media],” panelist and podcast host Natalie Brunell chimed in.

Brunel, however, was the first host to point out that parents share schools’ responsibility for ensuring students’ wellbeing, while acknowledging that the perils of the internet provided a new layer of challenge for families.

The “Outnumbered” couch’s intense response to the Central Regional School District meeting came shortly after Adriana’s father’s attorney confirmed that the family would sue the district for failing to protect the teen.

“The administration’s role in Adriana’s tragic death will be brought to light, and Mr. Kuch will use every legal avenue possible to get to the truth, for his family and the community,” attorney William A. Krais told The Post Friday morning.