THOMPSON, Conn. — A law firm’s investigation has found no evidence that bullying played a role in the suicide of a student who attended a private Connecticut school — a finding disputed by the teen’s mother.
Connor Tronerud, 15, died Dec. 4 in his hometown of Sutton, Massachusetts. He was a sophomore at Marianapolis Preparatory School in Thompson, Connecticut. An obituary written by his family said he took his own life “after struggling with bullying from peers.”
Cooney, Scully and Dowling, a Hartford law firm hired by the school to look into its actions and anti-bullying policies, released a 28-page report Thursday that found only one reported incident of bullying against Connor in November 2016, The Hartford Courant reported.
“Absent additional information, any attempt by the undersigned to attribute the incident a year before his suicide as the sole, most significant, or even major cause of his suicide would be reckless,” the report said.
The report also said the steps the Catholic prep school takes to prevent bullying “exceed any recognized standard of care.”
Connor’s mother, Teresa Tronerud, said the report contains inaccurate information and school officials would not make corrections. She told the Courant that her family is taking time to review the entire report before commenting further.
The report said the 2016 bullying incident involved students circulating photos of Connor by text message. The photos were copied from a Facebook page of a camp affiliated with the school.
The law firm did make recommendations including improvements to the school’s tracking and recording of inappropriate student conduct.
A spokesman for the Worcester County, Massachusetts, district attorney’s office, which is investigating Connor’s death, did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday.