New Jersey Student Sues School Districts Over Alleged Bullying

New Jersey Student Sues School Districts Over Alleged Bullying





A New Jersey teenager is suing two local school districts
for not doing more to stop the relentless bullying he allegedly endured
from fourth grade until high school, the Hunterdon County Democrat
reports.

Brian Cige, an attorney for the student, told the news outlet that his client was bullied by both students and some school employees. The cruelty the teenager encountered is said to have included incidents of "pantsing," speculation over his sexual orientation and cyber bullying through Facebook.

Cige is arguing that the school districts are liable for not having done more to stop this behavior.

Visit NJ.com for more details about the lawsuit.

Though there aren't hard statistics on how frequently lawsuits grow out of bullying incidents, USA Today previously reported that such cases have grown more common in recent years.

One
attorney, for example, told the news outlet that he processed between
60 and 70 bullying-related cases in a matter of just two years.

However, rulings on these cases can depend on a variety of factors.

Earlier this year, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against school officials in Mentor, Ohio,
after it was determined the victim's parents didn't offer enough
evidence to suggest the school could have done more to prevent the
bullying of their daughter. The judge noted that the bullying of the
teen -- who later committed suicide -- occurred mostly over the summer
and after the student had left the school.

Misty Phillips, on the other hand, won a $300,000 judgment against
a Tennessee school district after another student threw a textbook at
her son, and he went blind in one eye. (The district appealed the
ruling, though, and the case has since gone to the state's Supreme
Court.)

New Jersey is currently home to the nation's toughest anti-bullying law, which was passed following the high-profile suicide of Rutgers student Tyler Clementi.

As The New York Times previously reported:

Each
school must designate an antibullying specialist to investigate
complaints; each district must, in turn, have an antibullying
coordinator; and the State Education Department will evaluate every
effort, posting grades on its Web site. Superintendents said that
educators who failed to comply could lose their licenses.

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