Science- Rose Bronstein claims her teen was driven to suicide because of cyberbullying by other students.
- The mom is suing her son's former school because they didn't do enough to stop it, she says.
In November 2021, Robert and Rose Bronstein breathed a sigh of relief when their 15-year-old son, Nate, was told by his former principal that he could return to his old school.
The parents told Insider that they'd been desperately worried about Nate. Rose Bronstein said he'd complained about bullying and isolation at his new school almost as soon as he'd enrolled two months earlier.
"Things started to fall apart quickly," Bronstein said. "Then, throughout the semester, things got worse and worse." She said that the situation had gotten so bad, Nate began to skip school.
Tragically, she told Insider, he died by suicide on January 13, 2022 — 11 days before he was due to return to his former school. He was driven to "despair," she said, by the "relentless" jibes and ostracism. Bronstein said she and her husband only discovered that their teen had been targeted by cyberbullies after his death.
Nate's family is suing a Chicago private school, claiming it breached its duty of care
"They threatened and humiliated him on text and Snapchat," Bronstein said, claiming that a fellow student told Nate to "kill himself." Some of the worst abuse was caused by a disturbing meme on Snapchat, the 49-year-old mom said. The post — which, she said originated from a group of 20 10th-grade basketball players — was shared by high schoolers across their home city of Chicago.
The Bronsteins have filed a lawsuit against the $40,000-a-year private school, Latin School of Chicago, that Nate attended. The suit alleges that educators did not do enough to stop the bullying or discipline the students involved.
"I want people to know what happened because this is not an isolated incident," the mom said. "This is happening week after week — we are losing thousands upon thousands of children to suicide related to bullying and cyberbullying."
Insider contacted the Latin School for comment. A person who answered the phone said, "We are making no comment. We are not taking any of these calls." An email from Insider went unanswered.
According to the Centers for Disease Control, suicide is the leading cause of death for 14- to 15-year-olds and the second-leading cause of death among 15- to 19-year-olds.
Bronstein told Insider that Nate was "extremely bright and witty with a good sense of humor." She added that "he loved group sports and being a part of the team. The physical activity really made him happy.
"Basketball was his number-one interest — he was very passionate about the game."
Nate made the switch from Francis W. Parker School to Latin in September 2021. Bronstein said the main reason for the change was that in the wake of COVID-19, Latin had guaranteed that it would run in-person, not remote classes.
Bronstein said she alerted Nate's school about his bullying and ostracism
"He was OK with moving to Latin," she said. "He said, 'I'm sure it won't be a big deal because it's pretty similar to Parker."
The mom went on, "We said, 'You'll still have all your friends from Parker, and now you could have friends from two schools.'"
But, she said, Nate was "excluded socially" from the beginning. She alerted the school, which encouraged Nate to join the junior-varsity basketball team in order to make friends. But she said that "things escalated," and members of the team would mentally torture him. "He would experience acceptance, then rejection," she said.
"He was skipping school a lot and coming home during the day," Bronstein said. "It got to the point when he became so anxious, he wanted to leave and go back to Parker." He was accepted back at Parker but told that he couldn't make the move until January 24, 2022.
"Nate's knowledge that he would be transferring back to Parker in January brought him relief and caused improvement in his mental health," the lawsuit says.
The suit contends that Latin students "spread rumors" that Nate was not vaccinated against COVID, and his parents were labeled "anti-vaxxers," despite the fact that Nate had received the vaccine.
According to the filing, cyberbullies seized on an incident in December 2021, when they inferred that Nate had posted his support for Parker on social media. It took place during a basketball game between Parker and Latin. "The rivalry was toxic," Bronstein, who has two other children, told Insider.
The lawsuit includes screenshots of group texts and messages on Snapchat in which members of the Latin team appear to torment Nate, sending him messages like, "Fuck you, Nate" and "You're a terrible person." The meme on Snapchat — which, the lawsuit said, threatened Nate with physical harm — was allegedly shared beyond the Latin School community. "It reached hundreds and hundreds of Chicago-area students," Bronstein claimed. The lawsuit says he received a separate Snapshot from another student that said, "Go kill yourself."
The parents said they weren't aware of the cyberbullying until after their son's death
According to the lawsuit, Nate reported the cyberbullying to the dean of students, who took no action.
Bronstein said she was unaware of the online bullying at the time. "He probably felt embarrassed and humiliated," she said. "He didn't want to tell us in case we took his phone away."
Nate took his own life on January 13, 2022. "Rob found him in the bathroom," Bronstein said.
"I wake up every morning and still think, 'Wait, did this really happen?'" Bronstein told Insider. "I live in this chronic hell. It has destroyed our nuclear family."
She said that in the week after Nate's death, they met with faculty at Latin. It wasn't until January 27, she said, that the staff admitted that a student had come forward with screenshots of the cyber abuse.
"It had impacted him psychologically to the point where he felt helpless and couldn't handle it anymore," Bronstein said. "It's no different than if these kids had dragged him behind the school and physically beaten him to the extent that he was so injured, he lost his life."
The lawsuit says that Latin was responsible for "wrongful death" and the "violating of anti-bullying law" and that the school had demonstrated a "willful and wanton breach of duty." The alleged bullies were allowed to stay at Latin, the suit says.
The family has established a nonprofit in order to fight online bullying
In the meantime, the couple has launched a nonprofit initiative called Buckets Over Bullying. Bronstein, who wants Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, has joined other bereaved parents in an effort to prevent cyberbullying of children through education, lawmaking, and legal action.
"It's what gets me out of bed in the morning," she told Insider. "I don't want Nate to have died in vain."