Suing a School Over Bullying

The news making the rounds this week is the school outside Cleveland that is being sued over a student's suicide, which the parents claim is a result of unaddressed bullying. It is quite the interesting case and, if it doesn't settle, will make for a nice test case. The parents are clearly angling for a Title IX based claim under the Davis Standard.

Teasing, verbal intimidation and name-calling — terms such as "gay," "queer" and "homo" — would lead to pushing, shoving and hitting in the classroom and hallways, according to the lawsuit.

An administrator even saw Eric crying in the hallway the day of his death but took no action, the lawsuits claims.

Eric's mother, who works at Roosevelt Elementary in Euclid, calls the filing a final effort to get the Mentor School District to admit it has a problem.

"Quite frankly if they had said, 'Bill and Jan, we're really sorry, we're going to work really hard to make sure this doesn't happen again,' I wouldn't be doing this," she said. "Instead they looked me in the face and said, 'Oh, we didn't know this was happening.' "

The homosexual based bullying issue is really interesting because few courts have recognized that as a legitimate claim under the Davis standard - and it doesn't strike me that the homosexual issue was at the heart of this bullying case. Also, you can see the parents positioning to make a "deliberate indifference" claim. However, at other points in the article it does seem like school officials did take some actions, even if they eventually proved inadequate. In addition, the case also directly calls in to question the Olewus Bullying Prevention Program, which is a very popular program around the country and is going to cause a lot of schools to watch this case. 

Overall, I don't think the parents have a lot of solid legal ground here. Even the Ohio Anti-Bullying Statute directly states it does not give rise to a private right of action. But, the finality and shock of a suicide will put the judge to the test, so don't be surprised if he or she eventually finds a way to let this parent recover, assuming it doesn't settle ... which I think it will. The district doesn't want a few years of headlines on this issue.