School Bullying Council

Eau Claire (WQOW) – A local school district is denying claims after a lawsuit is filed over bullying. 

Wally Ellenson played for the Memorial High School basketball team a few years ago before his family moved to Rice Lake.  His family claims Wally suffered physical and emotional injuries as a result of bullying from his Old Abe teammates and the coach.  Ellenson’s family says the district failed to prevent the bullying after being made aware of it.  They recently filed a civil lawsuit. 

The Eau Claire Area School District has now responded and is denying those claims.  The district says the family was told the proper complaint procedure in bullying cases, but says the Ellenson’s didn’t use it.  It also says Ellenson assumed the risk of injury by playing basketball.

http://www.wqow.com/Global/story.asp?S=14405911

A U.S. District Court case involving a Chequamegon High School student, Rachell Morenweiser, and her mother, Jacqueline Kennedy, was dismissed on March 24, according to federal documents.

The lawsuit, filed by Morenweiser and Kennedy against the Chequamegon School District in August 2010, had claimed the district “remained deliberately indifferent” to repeated complaints about bullying by classmates against Morenweiser. The suit also had claimed that school officials had taken action against Morenweiser’s step-father, Timothy Kennedy, employed by the district, when he complained about the bullying to school officials.

Chequamegon School District Superintendent Mark Luoma, High School Principal Todd Lindstrom, and School Counselor Katherine Rybak, one of Morenweiser’s classmates, and various insurance companies had been named as defendants in the suit.

The order for dismissal, outlined by District Court Judge Barbara B. Crabb, reads as follows:

each and every legal claim and issue, including cross claims, whether available under state or federal law, which were raised or which could have been raised in this action by any of the parties shall all be dismissed on their merits by the district court, with prejudice, but without an award of costs or fees by the court and without any further notice from or hearing before the presiding district court judge.

http://ashlandcurrent.com/article/11/04/02/bullying-case-dismissed-against-chequamegon-school-district