School Bullying Council

JOSHUA -  Sometimes children who are bullied feel as if they have no way out. Jon Carmichael was such a person who was bullied so much he took his own life. It has been one year since his death.

Carmichael’s parents are suing the school district. They said in a lawsuit against Joshua Independent School District that school officials knew about the attacks, but did nothing to stop or help Jon. 

“The last week of his life, they had stripped him down and tied him up and gagged him, threw him in a trashcan,” said Tami Carmichael, victim’s mother. “Put it on their phones and supposedly put it on Youtube.”

Tami is suing the district, the superintendent, the board president, counselor and  three teachers. She claims they watched as the bullies  pick on her son at Loflin Middle School, but they did nothing to stop the abuse, even when he expressed suicidal thoughts.

“They have my phone number, they have my husband’s phone number, they’ve got my daughter’s phone number….report it!” Tami said. “But they didn’t and it could have saved him.”

The lawsuit alleges that Joshua schools ignored their own policy and accuses administrators of hiding video evidence of the bullying and Jon’s private journal.

“The district does not believe its at fault, they will vigorously defend that position,” said Rhonda Crass, Joshua ISD attorney.

The district has not been served court documents.

Tami said the lawsuit is not about money, but changing the culture of bullying in the district.  

“That’s the only reason I am doing this, is for the children,” Tami said. “To make it where they feel good about walking through those doors and doing their school work.”

Email: cnorton@wfaa.com

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http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Joshua-bullying-119065109.html

(CNN) — The family and friends of Jon Carmichael will speak out Thursday about his suicide and the effects of bullying.

His parents say it was bullying that led the 13-year-old to commit suicide, hanging himself in a barn near his home in Cleburne, Texas.

The family is scheduled to speak at a news conference, that comes four days after the first anniversary of Carmichael’s death.

On that anniversary, his parents, Jon Timothy and Tami Carmichael, filed a $20 million federal lawsuit against several officials at the school Jon attended, alleging they deliberately turned a blind eye to the bullying of their son, prompting his death.

In the lawsuit, documents state that staff and students at The Joshua Independent School District observed several explicit acts of bullying, including Jon being thrown into a trash can “easily a few times a week,” but did nothing to stop it.

“He was placed upside down in a toilet bowl, and had his head flushed several times, at each occasion. These acts were observed by other students who failed to report the incident,” the documents said. “Just prior to his death he was stripped nude, tied up and again placed into a trashcan.”

The lawsuit states that event was taped and put on YouTube, but was taken down “at the direction of an unknown staff member, who also failed to report the incident.”

Carmichael family attorney Martin J. Cirkiel said the family’s goal in issuing the lawsuit is to educate.

“On the human level, the family wants what every family wants when they come to me in these kind of cases. They want to make sure it doesn’t happen to someone else,” the attorney said.

Cirkiel said the family would like to see a program developed in their son’s name and to be able to open a trust fund for kids who need it who are being bullied.

“They want to increase planning and education,” he said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/US/03/31/texas.bullying/