Lawrenceville School student Jack Reid’s parents reveal last conversation before suicide

The parents of the 17-year-old boy who took his own life last year as a result of relentless bullying at a prestigious New Jersey boarding school said the last thing he told them was that he was “doing better” and loved them.

Elizabeth and Bill Reid spoke with “Good Morning America” about their late son Jack on Tuesday, days after Lawrenceville School acknowledged it “fell tragically short” in protecting their child.

“We were well aware of what was going on and we were encouraging him. He advocated for himself. He talked to the school. He talked to his friends. We were meant to see him the next morning and the last words we spoke to him about were, ‘Dad, I’m doing better. I love you,’” his father recalled.

Lawrenceville officials were aware of the merciless bullying and “cruel behavior” toward Jack before his death on April 30, 2022, and said in a statement Sunday that “there were steps that the school should have taken in hindsight and did not.”

The statement was part of an agreed-upon settlement between the boarding school and Jack’s parents.

Despite being in constant contact with her son before his death, his mother — who is a clinical psychologist — said she saw no signs that the situation would take such a heartbreaking turn.

“Everyone in this room probably knows someone that was bullied as a child, and you do suffer the scars of that,” Elizabeth told GMA. “What we’ve realized from our situation is that it can lead to death. This is a very serious issue and the Internet absolutely makes it even much worse for kids today.”

His mother remembered Jack for his kindness and how he “lived by the golden rule.” Now looking for ways to move forward, his grief-stricken parents have started the Jack Reid Foundation for the education and prevention of bullying and cyberbullying.

“You lose a child, you look around at the rubble and you say, ‘What can I make out of this?’ I know Jack would want to save other children. And that’s what we want to try to do,” Elizabeth said.

One year after starting at the cushy boarding school, which costs a staggering $76,000 a year, Jack became the subject of severe bullying.

In the spring of 2021, an untrue rumor spread across the school’s campus that Jack had committed sexual assault by kissing a girl. By that September, a false claim that Jack was a rapist was shared anonymously to a nationwide student app.

Jack experienced continual harassment by students, both in person and online, as the rumor spread like wildfire. During a Secret Santa gift exchange that holiday season he was gifted a rape whistle and a book about how to make friends.

A classmate who had been previously disciplined for bullying Jack was expelled for an unrelated incident. While packing up his things — completely unsupervised — he falsely told other students that Jack was responsible for him being kicked out of school.

That same night Jack put a Bible in his gym shorts pocket and wrote a note directing his parents to a Google Doc that outlined his helplessness before dying by suicide.

Before his death, Jack approached school officials trying to get them to intervene. Lawrenceville officials investigated the rumors and found them to be false — but never publicly shared their findings or told Jack, despite knowing how severe the bullying had gotten.

Neither Jack nor his parents were informed that the teen had been cleared of the claims before his death.

As part of the school’s settlement with Jack’s parents, they will create a new dean’s position that will focus solely on mental health issues and bullying on campus.

Unlike public schools, which have to abide by state laws that regulate investigations and responses to bullying, private institutions have less strict rules for how they address bullying.

His father said the family hopes to lobby for legislation in New York and New Jersey to broaden the laws associated with bullying at private schools.

“One of the things we’ve learned is that in many states there are established anti-bullying rules. They don’t usually govern private institutions, charter schools, parochial schools,” Bill said on GMA as he and his wife noted the laws were not something they were aware of until they lost their son.

“That’s something we’d like to change.”