Natrona County School District, parent settle bullying suit
2 Mar
CASPER, Wyo. — A Casper woman who accused school officials of
failing to protect her daughter from months of bullying has
accepted a $60,000 settlement offer from the Natrona County School
District, court documents filed Tuesday show.
A lawyer for Pamela Gray, the parent who filed suit in May over
the alleged harassment, accepted the district’s offer of judgment
late Monday afternoon, according to an e-mail posted on a federal
court database. The settlement was finalized the next day.
The case had been set for trial in August in U.S. District
Court.
In her suit, Gray said her daughter, a student at Fort Caspar
Academy, suffered months of harassment at the hands of a boy who
also attended the Casper school. She accused the school’s
principal, Randall Larson, of acting with “deliberate indifference”
toward the situation, even after being informed the girl had been
victimized.
Lawyers for the district denied Gray’s assertions and argued
that the school took steps to protect the girl. In its offer, the
district noted that it was not admitting to the allegations or
agreeing that the girl had suffered any damages.
Cheyenne attorney Julie Nye Tiedeken, who represented the school
district and Larson, did not return a message left Tuesday at her
office.
Gray’s attorney, John Robinson of Casper, declined comment.
In court documents that accompanied the lawsuit, Gray claimed
her daughter was repeatedly harassed and assaulted by a young boy
from her homeroom. She maintained the bullying, which began in
August 2009 and continued through the time of the lawsuit, ranged
from punching the girl in the face to shoving her to the ground.
According to Gray, the bullying continued even after Larson
promised to protect the girl.
In the suit, Robinson asked a judge to force the district to
assure that the boy stayed away from Gray’s daughter while on
school grounds.
He also asked the court to force the district to conform to
Title IX — a federal law that prohibits gender discrimination in
schools — by developing a written sexual harassment policy for
students and a procedure to investigate and resolve student sexual
harassment complaints.
Through its lawyers, the district denied it violated Title IX.
Larson restricted access between Gray’s daughter and the boy, who
was at first suspended, and then transferred to another school,
according to court documents filed by the district last fall.
At the time the suit was filed, an attorney for the school
district said it had a clear anti-bullying policy in place that
included a process for reporting and investigating complaints.
