Mom of gay Red Lion H.S. student who killed himself after bullying sues district, others

The mother of a gay teenager who committed suicide after being bullied at school has filed a lawsuit against the Red Lion Area School District, a counselor and the school’s resource police officer, alleging they did not do anything to prevent the torment that led to her son’s death.

The lawsuit also charges that six students – identified only by their initials because they are minors – participated in bullying and abusing the teen.

The suit claims that the district, the counselor, Jason Hoffman, and the police officer, Marc Greenly, were aware of the bullying and abuse and, according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. Middle District Court in Harrisburg last week, “did nothing to intervene to stop the abuse.”

The suit alleges that the school district responded to the teen’s abuse “with deliberate indifference.”

The teen, Zachary Kirchner, hanged himself in the basement of his mother’s home on April 20, 2021. He had also sliced his arm open, the suit states. Zachary’s older brother, Matthew Kirchner, found his body.

Zachary was 15. His obituary said, “Zach had an amazing smile and loved to make everyone laugh, even if you were having a bad day.” He was interested in gymnastics and dreamed of matriculating to UCLA, a school known for its gymnastics program. “He was an amazing gymnast and loved skiing in the winter and riding roller coasters in the summer,” his obituary stated.

“Zach was a supporter of LGBTQ rights and believed that everyone should be treated equally, no matter what your race, religion, or sexual orientation, may be,” according to his obituary. “His life was cut tragically short when the bullying that he was being subjected to, became more than he could bear. His family wants everyone to know what a wonderful person this world has lost.”

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In the suit, Zachary’s mother, Hope Amspacher, is seeking unspecified damages against the school district, Hoffman, Greenly and the six students identified as Zachary’s tormentors.

“What happened to Zach is obviously a tragedy,” Amspacher’s lawyer, Renee Franchi, said. “It’s becoming far too common for this kind of atrocity to occur in our schools. ... We have to hold our institutions accountable to prevent this from happening to other children.”

Red Lion Area School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Zachary was a ninth grader at Red Lion Senior High School. He had been diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum and also suffered from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, oppositional defiance disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder and an unspecified mood disorder.

He came out as gay in the eighth grade, leading to the students named in the lawsuit publicly humiliating Zachary and calling him an LGBTQ slur, the suit alleges. Four of the students sent Zachary text messages and messages over social media telling him to kill himself, according to the suit.

The students, according to the suit, “relentlessly harassed, belittled, and broke down (Zachary) by telling him to ‘kill yourself’ and/or for (Zachary) to do a ‘charity’ for the (students) by committing suicide.”

The says the “sexual harassment and taunts” increased when Zachary went from junior high to the high school. Because of the abuse, the suit states, Zachary “began to exhibit self-harming behaviors including knives to cut himself.”

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In December 2020, according to the suit, Zachary attempted suicide by drinking nail polish remover. He was hospitalized for several days, and the school district was aware of his attempt.

After the suicide attempt, the suit states, “the relentless bullying by (the students) only continued.”

The abuse exacerbated Zachary’s disabilities and, according to the suit, caused him to exhibit “disruptive and distressing behavior.” The district, the suit alleges, responded by disciplining Zachary rather than addressing the bullying and abuse he was subjected to. On one occasion, the suit states, a teacher locked Zachary in a classroom “against his will for an extended period of time.” Another time, according to the suit, a teacher had Zachary sit among a group of his classmates while they went around the room telling Zachary what they did not like about him.

On other occasions, a parent of one of the students named in the suit allegedly “teased and humiliated (Zachary) in front of his classmates for being effeminate and not athletic.”

The suit states, “The district’s failure to accommodate (Zachary) was the cause of his continued severe disability-based bullying and eventual suicide.”

On April 13, 2021, Zachary sent a text to a classmate stating, “I’m (bleeping) done with life.” On the evening of April 19 and into the morning of April 20, the suit states, Zachary posted suicidal ideations on social media. The students named in the suit allegedly responded by bullying him and telling him to kill himself.

On April 20, Amspacher was worried about her son and “extremely concerned” that he may have harmed himself. She texted Zachary’s older brother, Matthew, and asked him to go to the school office to ask someone to check on Zachary at home.

The suit states that Hoffman and Greenly accompanied Matthew to his home. “Instead of performing a welfare check despite requests from Amspacher to do so,” the suit states, “the adults directed (Matthew), a then-minor child, to search for his brother in the house. As the adults petted the family dog in the living room, Matthew discovered blood on his brother’s bedroom floor and elsewhere in the house. Matthew then went into the basement where he found his brother’s body.

The abuse did not end with Zachary’s death, according to the suit.

On the one-year anniversary of his death, one student allegedly circulated a photo of Zachary on social media. The photo depicted Zachary with a noose tied around his neck. One other student commented on the photo: “Can’t believe 1 year, rope still ain’t broke,” accompanied by a flexing arm emoji and another of a smiling face wearing sunglasses.

The students allegedly sent the photo to Matthew.

“Thus,” the suit states, Matthew’s “witnessing and experience of the cruel bullying of (his brother) by (the student defendants) continued even after Zachary’s tragic death.”

Matthew, then a senior at Red Lion, dropped out of school and did not graduate, the suit states.

Columnist/reporter Mike Argento has been a York Daily Record staffer since 1982. Reach him at mike@ydr.com.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Mother of gay student at Red Lion H.S. who killed himself sues school