School Bullying Lawsuits May 14, 2009
When parents send their children off to school for the day, they are under the belief and impression that the school staff will protect them from harm during the day. School is supposed to be a safe place where kids can learn, socialize, and grow. Unfortunately, this is often a false assumption, especially when it comes to other students bullying a child.
School bullying comes in a number of ways. It can be as subtle as teasing to significant verbal abuse. It can range from pulling off a student’s hat to an actual physical beating. When this happens, the school district can often be held accountable.
Under Michigan law, a school and its staff have a legal duty to take measures to prevent student bullying when it is brought to their attention. Even when they do take some measures, it is often not enough. In those situations, a lawsuit can also be filed.
In a recent Michigan Court of Appeals case, the court held that the parents could proceed with a lawsuit against the school for their son being harrassed in school. “Even though a school district takes some action in response to known harassment, if further harassment continues, a jury is not precluded by law from finding that the school district’s response is clearly unreasonable“, said Judge Karen Nelson Moore in the court’s opinion.
The only way to prevent bullying from escalating is to hold the school systems accountable for this type of harm. Without any liability, they can just turn their heads and leave the student to the hands of the bullies. For more information on the rights of students who are the victim of bullying, please contact our office at (800) 606-1717.
Post Footer automatically generated by Add Post Footer Plugin for wordpress.
Reader Comments
My son Marshall Preston Spears 4-14-98, has been bullied since 5 th grade at Springfield Middle School. I have been up to the school and the police dept and made reports. First of all in 2008-2009 Mikey Mikolajczik would hit , kick, trip him in the halls and in class. Then when it was cold outside he was running across the play ground to one of his friends and JapresCaldwell ran behind him a picked him up and slam his left side on a big chuck of ice , he would cry because he is so afraid of the bully’s . His grades are dropping, he use a to a A’s and B student, I went to the school and police, and talked to Mr Calbert at springfield middle School. Marshall was still gettting bullied so I switched school’s , Lamora Pk School’s . So then for 7th grade he started at Endeavor Schools everything was doing good except a kid Karl Henderson kicked, tripped , and hit him and I went to the school and talked to Mr Kimble, he said Karl bully’s all the new students, i will talk to him. He said he could tell Marshall was very athletic and alot of kids are going to be jealous. So he was being bullied on and off at Endeavor, then one day in gym class , when the teacher walked out of the room Guy Packer came up and socked him in the stomach, he didn’t want to go to school again. I talked to Mr Kimble and the police again, Then I asked Marshall if he wanted to try Springfield Middle School, he said yes. he was doing good until Guy Packer followed him to springfield Middle school he’s being bullied all over again. Guy had to go to court for assault and battery charges against Marshall. Guy’s dad told the judge that Marshall and Guy are friends not true. Guy was trying to be nice so we would drop the charges, but I didn’t. so Guys friends at Springfield Middle school is bullying Marshall. I went up to the school and the police again, Marshall would come home and be really distant, and go to sleep. I would try to get him up for school and he would just cry and say Guy’s friends are bullying him. Or no mom I’m not telling you because you will go to the school and the police and I will get bullied alot harder. So when I went to the school and the police again, the principle was trying to help me, but everytime she talked to one kid another one would bully him, right down the line. He came home one day a said Ja corey chewed gum and through it at him, or he was pretending like he was going to hit Marshall and would make Marshall jump and asked him why are you jumping and laugh at him. Marshall has missed so much school because of the bully’s , that I’m afraid to send him to school, one year they had to take a kid away in a ambulance because he got beat up so bad. But when he’s not in school Guy keeps on texting him, and asking him why he’s not iin school, I texted back and asked aren’t you in school, Atleast I’m in school. Then their was a text that had a picture of Tre’ Hillman in it ws sent to us, trying to scare Marshall he and a bunch of other numbers he sent it to, but it was all non working number, so he was harassing us, I showed the school an the police again. I had to have a whole knee replacement on the March 22nd so Marshall was with me, when I got back home I was going through my texts again , some from Guy again, telling Marshall his mom was going to put me in jail for him not going to school. Also before I had surgery and went up to the school, the priciple email the teachers to keep a eye on Marshall because kids are bullying him. And we tried sending him back to school, so I told him ifanything happens you call me and I will come and get you, well at 10 a.m. he called said he had a stomach ache and wanted to come home, he was bullied again, we talked to the policeman that was their at the school for a fight already. We took Marshall to ER because he said his left side was hurting , they said it was a contusion and I told the ER doctor that he was being bullied at school, he told him he was going to leave him his number and to call him, he’s also a policeman. he said I want him to talk to the caseworker so he did, and give her the name of the kid that was bullying him. The case worker said she was going to call the school and talk to the case worker there. So when I got out of the hospital I tried sending him back to school on Monday 5-28-2011 , when he came home from school he said he was bullied but it wasn’t that bad on Monday and Tuesday, then on Wednesday he came house and said it got worse, kids were being mean to him again, calling him names and pushing him , and he started crying again, so I didn’t make him go to school again. He said that Guy is spreading alot of lies around school trying to get him in fights. Also one day when I walked up to the school to pick Marshall up he was coming out of school and Guy and a kid DeVonte was he front of he and Tre was in back of him hitting him and pushing him. He’s been hit, kicked, pushed, slammed on ice, stab with a ruler in his stomach and a pencil in his ear,socked in the stomach, tripped, socked in his rib. He went from a A student down to E’s because he can’t focus in class. He has college that what him to take summer course , the college in Illinios, on MEAP tests he gets 100 per cent on alot of course, he plays baseball , basketball, football. He could get schlorship for college , but the kids are so mean he don’t wnt to go to school. I guess this last week they had to take another kid that got in a fight to the hospital he had a broken nose. I don’t know what else to do, but go to the school and talk to the police, but now I have a lawyer . Cheryl Spears