School Bullying Council

Barbara Bagby Claims La Jolla Country Day School Did Nothing To Stop Bullying Against Her

SAN DIEGO — Administrators at La Jolla Country Day School followed protocol “to the letter” in dealing with a former student who claimed she was bullied by other students, an attorney for the school said Monday, but a lawyer for the plaintiff said the school retaliated against her client because she complained.

Closing arguments were delivered in the case brought by Desiree Barbara Bagby, who claims officials at the private school did nothing to stop the abuse against her. Her attorney asked the jury for $1 million in damages.

Bagby said derogatory slurs were written on her car and pictures of a penis were drawn on the vehicle, a student drove straight at her in a school parking lot, she was threatened over the Internet and a dead rat was placed in her locker.

John Collins, an attorney for the school, told a jury the lawsuit was a “misuse” of the justice system and was brought for retaliation against La Jolla Country Day.

“They (school administrators) followed protocol to the letter,” Collins told the jury.

Bagby’s father told his daughter’s school adviser that the goal of the legal action was to drag La Jolla Country Day through the mud, Collins told the jury.

Collins said most of the witnesses in the trial contradicted some of Desiree Bagby’s testimony that she was bullied and that school didn’t do enough about it.

Bagby was suspended for five days after admitting stealing beer and drinking during a school-sponsored trip to Ecuador and yelling an obscenity at a heckler during a school soccer game, according to court testimony.

“She was not the center of the universe,” Collins told the jury.

A recommendation to expel Bagby was overturned, but she was ultimately asked to withdraw from the school, which she did.

Bagby claimed she was not sent a re-enrollment contract for her junior year, but Collins said the school principal sent one to her home the day after it came to his attention.

Bagby, now 18 and in college, heard from her mother, not the school, that she was not going to be able to attend the school for her junior year, Collins said.

Collins said Bagby – who filed her lawsuit in April 2009 – was basically accusing the three top school officials of lying about how the situation was handled.

Joane Garcia-Colson, Bagby’s attorney, told the jury that the school wanted to make an example out of her.

Garcia-Colson said her client was humiliated on the bench after her soccer coach suspended her for missing a game.

By not notifying the Bagbys that their daughter wasn’t getting a contract to re-enroll at the school, administrators “broke their own rules” and “betrayed” Bagby, her attorney said.

According to Garcia-Colson, officials failed to do their job because they failed to discipline three girls who admitted defacing Bagby’s car.

“Those girls admitted to misconduct,” the plaintiff’s attorney said.

The girls told school administrators that they defaced Bagby’s car only after she wrote on their cars, but no one asked Bagby for her side of the story because she was the “bad girl from Ecuador,” according to Garcia-Colson.

Administrators concluded that Bagby, who was also a member of the cheer team, was a “bad child” and “they needed to get rid of her,” the attorney said.

“She wasn’t given any due process,” Garcia-Colson said. “She was just convicted.”

All teachers who testified during the trial said Bagby was a good student, her attorney told the jury.

Garcia-Colson urged the jury not to let La Jolla Country Day treat students the way they did her client.

“They retaliated against her because she complained,” Garcia-Colson said. “Hold them accountable.”

The lawsuit names La Jolla Country Day head of school Christopher Schuck, high school Principal Roderick Jemison and the school as defendants.

Jury deliberations were under way in the courtroom of Judge Frederic Link.

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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

A former student has sued the Black Horse Pike Regional School District, saying other students bullied and sexually abused her for years and the administration did nothing to stop it.

The suit, filed Friday in New Jersey Superior Court in Camden, contends that school officials repeatedly ignored the student and her parents’ cries for help, culminating in a 2009 meeting in which a then-school official told the family, “It takes two to tango.”

Superintendent John Golden, who was named to the post earlier this year, declined to comment on the specifics of the suit. He referred questions to the district’s attorney, who was unavailable for comment.

“We had expected this would eventually come forward,” Golden said.

The lawsuit describes abuses and taunts that the now 19-year-old student experienced with such regularity that she took to hiding out in the nurse’s office. The bullying extended over her entire four years at Timber Creek Regional High School, the lawsuit alleges, and ranged from other girls calling her a “slut” to a male student sitting next to her in class and sticking his hand down her pants.

The student, who is not named in the suit, is undergoing medical treatment to deal with the anxiety and battery of associated medical and psychological conditions that sprang up during the bullying, said her attorney, Jamie Epstein.

“It’s up to the school to protect students from being bullied, intimidated, and harassed,” he said.

The suit also alleges that the district removed the girl from school for an extended period after the parents of one of her alleged tormentors pressed charges against her, claiming she had threatened her daughter.

Bullying has become a national issue in recent years after a series of high-profile incidents, including one in South Hadley, Mass., in which a student committed suicide after repeated harassment by her classmates at school and online.

Lawsuits by bullied students have been filed against school districts across the country. And many states, including New Jersey, have passed laws requiring school districts to maintain anti-bullying programs.

But Epstein, who is representing another student in a bullying lawsuit against Berlin Township schools, said that avenues for legal recourse remained limited for many students.

He sued under antidiscrimination laws, contending that the school had allowed a “hostile environment” to develop where by virtue of her gender and disabilities – which include a host of psychological conditions that developed as she was bullied – she was deprived access to an education.

“There’s very little option for victims of generic bullying,” he said.

Contact staff writer James Osborne at 856-779-3876 or jaosborne@phillynews.com.

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/new_jersey/117567673.html

Michelle Macleod, left, argues her son Dillon, 14, has been repeatedly bullied since September and his high school has not done enough to stop it. She is now suing the school board and looking to charge Dillon’s bully. (JAMIE LONG/QMI Agency)

OTTAWA – A south-Ottawa mother is planning to sue Ottawas largest school board and have charges brought against her sons alleged bully after a series of incidents since September.

Michelle Macleod says her son Dillon, 14, has been repeatedly targeted by another teenage boy at Longfields-Davidson Heights Secondary School in Barrhaven, and the school has not done enough.

The Grade 8 student told QMI Agency his locker was smashed an event captured on video and the other student spread rumours that Dillon was gay.

It started with pushing and shoving, then ripping my hood off, throwing my hat in the water, but then it escalated, said Dillon, who was afraid to tell his mom about the incidents.

The feud then boiled over Jan. 27 when the alleged bully asked Dillon to fight during the lunch break. He obliged and now has a laundry list of injuries, including a broken right hand.

Macleod didnt know about the fight until Monday four days later when the school contacted her about suspending Dillon for the school week.

They took absolutely no blame for their actions at all, Macleod said after meeting with the schools principal, vice-principal and school resource officer.

The officer even said bullying is not against the law and they said no bullying has been done regarding Dillon whatsoever.

The other student was suspended for an unknown length of time, but Macleod said he hadnt been suspended for any of his earlier actions.

I had previous conversations with the vice-principal regarding him being bullied, but in the meeting … they wouldnt admit to it.

The schools resource officer did not return phone calls over the past few days.

The board did say: There are two sides to every story, but wouldnt elaborate because the case involved an individual student.

All Ontario schools have an anti-bullying policy, which is legally required under the provinces Safe Schools Act.

The board told QMI Agency there is a progressive discipline approach, but Macleod argued it wasnt followed in this case.

Macleod said she went into the meeting looking for an apology and possibly some changes to the schools bullying policy. But the lack of remorse or receptiveness left her upset, she said, which led her to family lawyer Paul Jakubiak.

Jakubiak represented Kanata mother Krisha Stanton, who sued Ottawas Catholic School Board for $325,000 after her daughter was bullied in 2007. The case was settled out of court in November.

Jakubiak confirmed he is representing Macleod, but wouldnt comment any further.

They are meeting Friday to file the lawsuit.

jamie.long@sunmedia.ca

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Crime/2011/02/03/17144886.html