Today’s episode of The Jessie Frees Show on WMTR sponsored by InsiderNJ features a discussion about youth mental health.

Host Jessie Frees is joined by InsiderNJ Editor Max Pizarro and the following guests, among others:

Dianne Grossman, the Rockaway Mother of Mallory Rose Grossman, CEO of Mallory’s Army. Her daughter, Mallory Grossman, committed suicide at the age of 12 after being relentlessly bullied. “What we are seeing is a society that is hurting and broken and we have done this,” says Grossman. “We have put so much pressure on our children that they start solving their problems themselves.” And they are solving them with gun violence, filmed beatings, eating disorders, and cyber bullying.

Senator Shirley Turner (D-15), veteran Trenton lawmaker, who wants greater oversight of the enforcement of anti-bullying laws, and a finetuning of New Jersey’s anti-bullying laws.

Senator Patrick Diegnan (D-18), veteran Trenton lawmaker and author – with Senator Joe Pennacchio (R-26) of “Mallory’s Law” in honor of Mallory Rose Grossman. “This legislation seeks to address the unimaginable circumstances which led to the death of Mallory Rose Grossman, who took her own life in 2017 – at the age of 12 – after suffering bullying at school and on social media,” says Diegnan. “Cyber harassment has become another weapon used by bullies to destroy those innocent victims who they relentlessly target. A parent or guardian who willfully disregards or enables the cyber-attacks of a minor adjudicated of cyber-harassment must be held accountable. I am heartened by the support of The NJ State PBA, Garden State Coalition of Schools, NJ Association of School Administrators, and NJ School Boards Association.”

Paula Fetterman, mother of a bullied child removed from school after unresponsiveness from the school system.

Here is a single question – among many – to consider out of this conversation:

This InsiderNJ Radio Show originally aired on WMTR earlier this year, in concert with InsiderNJ’s Youth Mental Health Special Report.

The spiral of bullying and violence intensifies, in school and out of school, and online, and it

builds to the point where another beautiful young girl, in this case Adriana Kuch of Berkeley Twp., who earlier this year got jumped in a gang-land style ambush, beaten, and filmed while her attackers threw punches, committed suicide. The laws on the books, responsive, well-crafted, and made in good conscience, could not prevent the cessation of another young and beautiful broken heart.

Mallory and Adriana – gone; and the rest of us left behind to figure out where we went wrong, and what we might do to prevent another catastrophic outcome, another child’s death.

Do we truly need more laws if the laws on the books fail to prevent more loss of life?

Mallory’s Law could not spare us the need for Adriana’s Law.

That is the subject in this special episode of the Jessie Frees Show:

Award winning veteran New Jersey Broadcaster Jessie Frees has hosted numerous radio shows and has interviewed thousands of notable guests in her 37-year career. She hosts the interactive live call – in talk shows, “Ask the Expert” and “Your New Jersey Connection” on WMTR. A children’s author, she is a mother of 3 and grandmother of 8. A political analyst and writer, she guest lectures around the state.

Max Pizarro is the veteran, award-winning editor of InsiderNJ.