Parents of Mallory Grossman, Rockaway Township suicide victim, appear on morning shows

After announcing plans to sue the Rockaway Township school district Tuesday, Dianne and Seth Grossman appeared on the "Today" show and "CBS This Morning" on Wednesday, as their daughter's suicide moved from a local tragedy to a national story.  

The Grossmans spoke of their daughter Mallory, who was 12 when she killed herself in June after what they said was frequent bullying by classmates. They called her an "All-American girl" and someone everybody hopes their child will be.

During the "Today" show segment Wednesday morning, which also included the Grossmans' attorney, Bruce Nagel, host Matt Lauer told the Grossmans that their daughter did not seem to fit the description of someone who would be bullied — popular, a girl with a lot of friends, and an athlete.

"I think the farce was that she kind of represented to the girls that did this to her what they could never be," Dianne Grossman said.

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The bullying began in elementary school, Mallory's parents said, continuing through middle school, and it grew worse and worse. Nagel said the girls would text Mallory and send her comments online, telling her that she was a loser, that she had no friends and should kill herself.

Mallory begged her parents not to report the bullying to the school, because she thought that would make the situation worse for her. But Mallory's parents brought everything their daughter told them to the school district anyway, Dianne Grossman said.

"They investigated it, and that's as far as it went," Seth Grossman said. "Nothing ever came of it."

Dianne Grossman said they did not want to be the kind of parents who constantly badgered the school but said they needed to when they observed changes in their daughter. During their Tuesday afternoon press conference outside their lawyer's office, Mallory's parents said she had stopped wanting to go to school, she had chronic headaches and stomachaches and her grades plummeted.

"Today" reached out to the school district officials, who declined to comment. In June, the district issued a statement extending sympathy to the family. The statement also said the district was cooperating with the investigation and that it could not respond to inaccurate rumors and accusations.

The Grossmans even reached out to one of the parents of the girls who were bullying Mallory, Dianne Grossman said. She said the parent was dismissive and that "it was no big deal." If the roles were reversed, she said, she would be outraged.

"This is a wake-up call," Nagel said. "Cyberbullying is going on in every school."

Nagel said administrators need to do more, and do something when bullying occurs.

"When there's a report of a problem, like there was repeatedly by parents, you have to move on it, and this school did not," Nagel added. "Every school needs to learn a lesson from this case."

The Grossmans said that it has not been easy and that they just want to honor their daughter.

"We don't want another parent to walk in our shoes," Dianne Grossman said. "It's incredibly painful."