Webb City officials: No evidence of bullying found so far in teen's death

Jul. 5—WEBB CITY, Mo. — Officials investigating the death of 14-year-old Afghan refugee Rezwan Kohistani, a Webb City student who was found dead on school property, say they haven't turned up any evidence to support that the teen was a victim of bullying or foul play.

Kohistani, who started attending Webb City schools in January, was found dead May 5 at Webb City High School. Jasper County Coroner Randy Nace ruled the teen's death a suicide by hanging.

The investigtion remains open, but Webb City police Chief Don Melton said in a recent Globe interview that there is still no evidence of wrongdoing.

Comments that Kohistani was a victim of bullying have been circulating on social media in the weeks since his death. Melton said the department has been conducting interviews with multiple people who had contact with the boy, but there hasn't been any indication of bullying or that foul play was involved.

"We have spoken with several students, teachers, counselors, principals, and administrators, and we haven't been able to substantiate any of the allegations of bullying," Melton said. "It's still an active investigation, and we're still working through some evidentiary items. There has been no indication of any foul play at this time."

Melton said they appreciate the public's patience with the ongoing investigation and ask anyone has any information to contact the Webb City Police Department.

Webb City Superintendent Anthony Rossetti said the school district continues to cooperate with police and has given them access to students and staff. He said that there haven't been any reports of bullying to the district or through the district's anonymous tip line.

Rossetti said he's not completely ruling out that Kohistani had not been bullied, but there has been no evidence at this time to support it.

"I can't say that for 100%, nor would I because I don't live in a dream world and think that there aren't opportunities for kids to be mean to one another, but if you're talking about a systemic pattern with a particular kid or groups of kids, none of that has emerged as of right now," he said. "Kids can do things that don't get reported. I can never sit here and say that we ruled out everything and that's an absolute 'no' until there's some closure and the police have finished their investigation. Maybe there will be some evidence that will emerge that there was something going on, but at this point, we haven't discovered anything that would support that."

The Kohistani family has been working with the Afghan-American Foundation, which released a statement May 22 on the family's behalf.

"Rezwan was a bright light in our life," the Kohistani family said in the statement. "What is most important to us now is that we fully understand all of the factors that may have contributed to his death. Until then, we ask that you join us in being patient, allowing the investigation to run its course, and standing watch to make sure that it is conducted carefully and fairly."

The family also thanked the Afghan-American community and Webb City community for their support, as well as "the various organizations who are helping share news of our loss and joining our request that there be a prompt and in-depth investigation into Rezwan's death and any events leading up to it."

"If this means that local authorities must partner with counterparts in the federal government then we welcome that and ask that there not be any further delay in getting that help to Webb City," the family stated.

Joplin attorney William Fleischaker, who works with civil and criminal litigation, announced Thursday that he will be representing the family of Rezwan Kohistani throughout the investigation.

"The Kohistanis deserve to know what if any external forces led Rezwan to believe that the only way out of his misery was to end his life," he said in a statement. "Furthermore, they need to be satisfied that Rezwan did, in fact, take his own life, and if he did not, then they deserve to have those responsible for his death brought to justice."

The teen's family had arrived in the U.S. in the aftermath of the fall of the previous Afghan government, according to the Missouri chapter and national office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the nation's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization.

In May, numerous Afghan-American and Muslim organizations, including CAIR's Missouri chapter and its national office, called for a thorough and transparent police investigation into Kohistani's death and to look into any allegations of bullying.

"We fully support family attorney William Fleischaker's efforts to find the truth about the tragic loss of Rezwan Kohistani at Webb City High School," CAIR National Deputy Executive Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement. "We join other organizations in pledging our support for the family's efforts. The police must conduct a swift, transparent and thorough investigation, and our society must take steps to protect young people, including refugees."

Rossetti said being reflective about Kohistani's death and the allegations of bullying, the school district will present a plan to the Webb City Board of Education in July. They aim to allocate resources to provide additional services to students by addressing mental health needs, bullying curriculum and suicide prevention at the school district, Rossetti said.

"We have a professional development group that we contract with, and we're trying to find out if they can provide our staff with a refresher on identifying and remediating bullying for this upcoming school year," he said. "We're going to have our administrators go through a provided training, so that they're refreshed. We've also added some administrators to this upcoming year, and we want them to be up to speed with any of the contemporary trainings and changes in laws that may have come into place to make sure that they have all of the information to make good investigations and recommendations for consequences.

"If there was something that we could've done differently that would've made a positive impact, we don't want to let an opportunity to go by that we can provide better services to our students," he said.

School emails

The Joplin Globe filed an open records request with the Webb City School District for emails pertaining to Kohistani and received over 150 pages of information between school staff and a school enrollment specialist with the Refugee and Immigrant Services & Education Community, a nonprofit organization in Noel that provides assistance to refugees.

In the emails, a school staff member said, "The Kohistani family seems to be adjusting pretty well. Teachers, staff and other students seem to love them!"

Rezwan Kohistani was described by staff in the emails as intelligent and eager to learn English, and had been looking forward to school breaks in the spring and summer.

A teacher did say in the emails that by the time Rezwan got to her English class at the end of the school day, he would be too tired to complete his work. Later, she added that she learned that Afghanistan students only attend school for about four hours a day, which is why he could be exhausted by the time he reached her class.

No reports of bullying or struggles with other students were ever noted within the emails obtained by the Globe.