Parents test school liability in suicide
Lawsuit wants officials held responsible for death of bullied 8-year-old student
CINCINNATI - The parents of an 8-year-old Ohio boy who hanged himself from his bunk bed with a necktie want school officials held responsible, testing the issue of school liability in suicides blamed on bullying.
The wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parents of Gabriel Taye against Cincinnati Public Schools and school officials cites repeated examples of Gabriel and others being bullied at his elementary school. They contend school officials knew about the bullying but were “deliberately indifferent,” allowing a “treacherous school environment.”
Knowledge of harassment and failure to do something are among elements set out in a 1999 U.S. Supreme Court ruling for school liability cases.
“The deliberate indifference standard set forth (by the Supreme Court) sets a high bar for plaintiffs,” a 2016 opinion by a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals says. “It requires only that school administrators respond to known peer harassment in a manner that is not ‘clearly unreasonable in light of the known circumstances.’ ”
The ruling rejected an appeal by a Tennessee family that sued a school district over two years of alleged relentless bullying that forced their son to change schools.
Cincinnati school officials have said that the boy told staff he fainted the day his parents say Gabriel was knocked unconscious at a school bathroom and that he never said he was bullied or assaulted. He killed himself two days later, on Jan. 26.
Legal experts say such lawsuits are becoming more common amid increasing public awareness campaigns on youth bullying. A 2015 federal survey estimated about 21% of U.S. students, ages 1218, said they had been bullied.
Federal authorities say they are still learning about the links between school bullying and suicide, saying bullying increases the risk of suicidal behavior, but that the majority of bullying cases don’t result in suicide, suicide attempts or thoughts of suicide.
Courts have shown reluctance to increase the demands on school officials to quell bullying. The Supreme Court has urged courts against secondguessing school administrators’ disciplinary decisions, to allow them the flexibility they need to deal with children who are still learning how to interact appropriately.