BULLYING AND SUICIDE LAWSUITS

BULLYING AND SUICIDE LAWSUITS





In Minnesota this year, two eighth-grade girls hanged themselves together and
left suicide notes. They were best friends, and one reportedly had been
bullied and had been expelled from school for defending her friend in a
fight at school.  Reports did not disclose whether personal injury
lawsuits are planned in connection with those deaths.
In a Houston-area case, the parents of an eighth-grader who shot himself to death last year filed a personal injury lawsuit against the school district, alleging that he was bullied at the school, in part because he was gay.
As the Rutgers case shows, a suicide
resulting from bullying can lead not only to a personal injury lawsuit
but also to a criminal charge.  That case is not unique.  Recently five
teens in Massachusetts pleaded guilty to charges that they had bullied a 15-year-old girl who had hanged herself.    It remains to be seen whether or not personal injury lawsuits will result from the girl’s death.
Such personal injury and criminal cases
have led to legislation requiring schools to deal with the problem of
bullying.  The Houston-area personal injury lawsuit brought by the
parents of the eighth-grader who shot himself resulted in a bill that “requires school boards to ban bullying — including cyber-bullying
— and adopt procedures to handle reported incidents, including
providing notice to parents and guardians of both victims and bullies.”

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