Parents of bullied kids hiring lawyers, suing school districts In Central Florida and elsewhere, more families are suing school boards, saying they're to blame January 29, 2011|By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel Ned Charles IV has a form of cerebral palsy. The 15-year-old is in special-education classes. So was the boy who hit him, grabbed his neck and pushed him to the ground while waiting for a school bus two years ago at Tuskawilla Middle School. Ned's parents are now suing the Seminole County School Board, alleging that the boy who hurt their son had bullied him for days and that the district should have stopped it.
Ads By Google 2013 Kia Forte Clearance Kia Dealers are Cutting Prices! Find Kia Forte Deals Now. Kia.Auto-Price-Finder.com Healthy Choice® Meals Try A Variety of Healthy & Tasty Meals from Healthy Choice® Tonight! www.healthychoice.com
Their suit is part of a growing trend in Central Florida and nationally: Parents are hiring lawyers and suing school districts, accusing them of letting schoolyard bullies frighten, intimidate and sometimes beat up their children. The uptrend started around 2007, said Sonja Trainor, senior staff attorney at the National School Boards Association in Alexandria, Va. And some people and agencies have begun treating bullying as a public-health threat. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a nationwide campaign, dubbed "Stop Bullying Now!" with tips for parents and kids. And there is now an online video channel — "It Gets Better" — founded last year in response to the suicides of teenagers who were bullied because they were gay or suspected of being gay. Attorney Frank Kruppenbacher represented Orange County Public Schools for 30 years. He's now in private practice and says he gets about six calls a day from Central Florida families, complaining that they have a child who's being bullied and need legal help. He is stunned by the demand. Kruppenbacher said he has sent about 100 letters to school districts in Central Florida in the past two months, "putting them on formal notice that there's a situation that is causing damage to the child. We're not looking to file suit, quite candidly, but if they don't remedy the situation, it's going to move to that, and it could move to significant damages." Seminole's School Board is defending itself against two bullying suits in state circuit court, and another family has filed notice that it intends to sue, said School Board attorney Ned Julian. He would not discuss the cases, except to say the board is aggressively defending itself against the two that are pending.
Rene Stutzman can be reached at rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394.
"Be A Buddy, Not A Bully”-a popular CD of upbeat songs has been reviewed by the School Library Journal for grades K-4 to try to help combat bullying.
ReplyDelete“A very educational & positive children's music album that reinforces hospitality, acceptance, & togetherness.”
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/be-a-buddy-not-a-bully/id291765635
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/gennaro4
The song “Be a Buddy, not a Bully” can be heard on utube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or7WPUtUnRo
Parents of bullied kids hiring lawyers, suing school districts
ReplyDeleteIn Central Florida and elsewhere, more families are suing school boards, saying they're to blame
January 29, 2011|By Rene Stutzman, Orlando Sentinel
Ned Charles IV has a form of cerebral palsy. The 15-year-old is in special-education classes. So was the boy who hit him, grabbed his neck and pushed him to the ground while waiting for a school bus two years ago at Tuskawilla Middle School.
Ned's parents are now suing the Seminole County School Board, alleging that the boy who hurt their son had bullied him for days and that the district should have stopped it.
Ads By Google
2013 Kia Forte Clearance
Kia Dealers are Cutting Prices! Find Kia Forte Deals Now.
Kia.Auto-Price-Finder.com
Healthy Choice® Meals
Try A Variety of Healthy & Tasty Meals from Healthy Choice® Tonight!
www.healthychoice.com
Their suit is part of a growing trend in Central Florida and nationally: Parents are hiring lawyers and suing school districts, accusing them of letting schoolyard bullies frighten, intimidate and sometimes beat up their children.
The uptrend started around 2007, said Sonja Trainor, senior staff attorney at the National School Boards Association in Alexandria, Va. And some people and agencies have begun treating bullying as a public-health threat.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched a nationwide campaign, dubbed "Stop Bullying Now!" with tips for parents and kids. And there is now an online video channel — "It Gets Better" — founded last year in response to the suicides of teenagers who were bullied because they were gay or suspected of being gay.
Attorney Frank Kruppenbacher represented Orange County Public Schools for 30 years. He's now in private practice and says he gets about six calls a day from Central Florida families, complaining that they have a child who's being bullied and need legal help.
He is stunned by the demand.
Kruppenbacher said he has sent about 100 letters to school districts in Central Florida in the past two months, "putting them on formal notice that there's a situation that is causing damage to the child. We're not looking to file suit, quite candidly, but if they don't remedy the situation, it's going to move to that, and it could move to significant damages."
Seminole's School Board is defending itself against two bullying suits in state circuit court, and another family has filed notice that it intends to sue, said School Board attorney Ned Julian.
He would not discuss the cases, except to say the board is aggressively defending itself against the two that are pending.
Rene Stutzman can be reached at rstutzman@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6394.