Family of Peabody teen who took his own life due to bullying hopes his passing sparks change

PEABODY, Mass. — Pictures and memories of Jason Bernard are all that’s left of him inside his Peabody home.

“Jason should feel safe going to school, he should have felt safe going to school,” said Cely Rosario, Jason’s sister.

His family says he took his own life in May after he was constantly bullied at Higgins Middle School. He was 14 years old.

“They would name call him, they would text him, social media, create fake pages to target him and really say like awful, mean things, and this happened in the school, on the bus, outside the bus,” said Rosario.

Rosario says at first, Jason would try to report the bullying to his family and teachers, but it went on for two years.

“It affected, like, his overall self-esteem. He would kind of shrink every time his friends would say something, and every time he would try to be vocal about it, perception was that it was getting worse for him at school,” said Rosario.

“I think everyone at this point in the game takes it seriously, but they don’t always know what to look for,” said Dr. Elizabeth Englander, Executive Director of the MARC Center at Bridgewater State University.

“MARC,” which stands for the Massachusetts Aggression Reduction Center, works to prevent bullying in schools.

A big part of that effort is training teachers on what to look for.

“The behaviors that are most often used to bully today are what are called ‘gateway behaviors’ and those are like minor social behaviors that convey contempt, so it’s things like ignoring somebody or pretending they’re invisible or laughing at them or calling them a name,” said Dr. Englander.

Since Jason’s death, dozens of parents have voiced concerns about bullying in schools, many of whom have shared their own stories with Boston 25 News of how their children were victims.

So how big of a problem is it in Peabody?

Compared to similar sized school districts, Peabody is on the higher end when it comes to allegations of bullying.

According to state data from DESE for the 2023 school year, Peabody had 42 incidents reported, compared to just 16 in Needham, 14 in Natick and 23 in Lynn.

Waltham was on pace with Peabody with 41 allegations of bullying reported.

Dr. Englander says that state data doesn’t tell the whole story.

“Firstly, you’re not recording the true incidents of the problem, because a lot of it is never reported, second, even if by some miracle you’re getting a pretty good handle on it, it doesn’t really tell you which kids are being deeply affected and it doesn’t necessarily help you help these children,” said Dr. Englander.

She says better data comes from kids themselves.

According to the Youth Health Survey given to middle schoolers in Peabody, about 41% of them say they were bullied within the last 12 months.

That’s higher than the state average of 33.4% for this age group.

“I think there needs to be accountability for those that failed to recognize that this was a bigger issue,” said Rosario.

Jason’s family hopes by sharing his story, school districts will consider real changes to tackle bullying, so this doesn’t happen to another student.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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