Tag: bullying

TN. Multimillion dollar suit filed against school for failure to protect, bullying, assault and battery

The court-appointed guardian of a 16-year-old Washburn School student has filed a $30 million dollar lawsuit against more than a dozen parties.

The case, filed last month by the victim’s court-appointed guardian, Katherine Parks, said the then 15-year-old was brutally attacked by four classmates, leaving her with injuries to the face and head, it said.

Parties in the suit named include director of schools Edwin Jarnagin, the Grainger County Board of Education, and all the named attackers’ families.

The suit says one of the four classmates confronted the victim, identified as “SL,” hit her head on a metal pole several times, and then the other three girls kicked and punched the victim several times.

“While this beating was going on, S.L. remembers seeing a teacher walk by. The teacher took no action to stop the assault on S.L. or to help her in any way,” the suit said.

After the victim’s foster mother picked the girl up to take her to a hospital, she spotted an ambulance and stopped for help. The suit added “The workers at the substation examined S.L., determined her condition to be one of life and death…”

The severity of the injuries is reason why, according to lawyers from the plaintiff at the Vogel Law Firm, so much and so many people were named in the suit.

“We send out kids to school not to fail to be protected — to go and to learn and have a positive experience,” said associate attorney Rosie Brown. “If teachers and administrators and other school supervisors are turning a blind eye to situations that could lead to an incident so serious as this, then there’s something that needs to be done about that.”

MI. Federal Jury Orders School District to Pay Student $800k for Ignoring Pattern of Bullying

A landmark $800,000 jury award to a Michigan teenager who was sexually harassed for years by schoolmates.  The landmark case Patterson v. Hudson Area Schools (E.D. MI 2012, and 6th Cir. 2008) sends a message to school districts that taking ineffective action is akin to taking no action.  Ruling that the school has a duty to implement  effective consequences to stop misappropriate and illegal behavior.  Failure to take appropriate and effective action is akin to showing deliberate indifference to systemic student-on-student abuse and/or sexual harassment.

Facts of the Case:

Patterson went through high school enduring such taunts as “faggot” and “man boobs,” the defacing of his locker with a drawing of a penis inserted into a rectum, episodes where students pushed him into lockers and called him names like “queer,” “faggot,” and “pig” on a daily basis, an episode in which students urinated on his clothes, and finally a locker room assault in which a star football player rubbed his genitals in Patterson’s face. His parents sued the district for violations of Title IX, the Equal Opportunity in Education Act.

The district court dismissed the action, but the Court of Appeals reversed holding that “Where a school district has actual knowledge that its efforts to remediate are ineffective, and it continues to use those same methods to no avail, such district has failed to act reasonably in light of the known circumstances.” Patterson v. Hudson Area Schools, 551 F.3d 438 (2009).

The verdict is eight times what the district offered David and Dena Patterson before the trial. Title IX plaintiffs may also recover attorney fees — which means the final judgment could be the largest ever in a student-on-student harassment case.

Commentary:

The holding of this case is identical to the standard for the use of crisis intervention and restraint namely that the crisis intervention and restraint program in place at the school must meet the real safety and treatment needs of the school and “neither federal reimbursement practices nor state screening practices relieves the [school] of its responsibility to provide its [students] with necessary care and services.” For a school to continue to use ineffective intervention methods is akin to deliberate indifference and is a dereliction of the school’s duty of care. Thus it is not sufficient to have “some” crisis intervention or restraint program in place, the program and training in place must be sufficient and effective to meet the real needs of the school and students.

Pennsylvania School Accused of Failing to Protect Students in Their Care

After a student reportedly attacked Michael Homitz’s daughter during lunch at Avon Grove High School, leaving her with a concussion, Homitz home-schooled his daughter and has publicly criticized school administrators for allegedly failing to protect her.

The Feb. 23 assault was recorded by a student in the lunchroom and posted on the Internet.

Recent child suicides with connections to both in-school and electronic tormenting and a growth in the scope and nature of bullying prompted the Daily Local News to take a closer look at the issue in Chester County.

After the fight, Homitz withdrew his daughter from school and began teaching her at home because he felt school officials could no longer ensure her safety.

“No child is safe in that school if they’re not going to do anything about it. I wouldn’t feel safe as a teacher.”

Homitz said he repeatedly reported the bullying to school administrators on multiple occasions and warned it would eventually become physical. He believes administrators failed to take action to prevent the Feb. 23 incident.

To add insult to injury, Homitz said that instead of being expelled the attacker reportedly received a 10-day suspension and then returned to school. “The school didn’t do anything about it. The same thing is happening here and every school across the country.”

The comments to this article are interesting.