Suit alleges bullying not stopped
An exclusive private school in Denver allegedly mishandled the bullying complaints of a seventhgrader in part because the parents of two of the children accused of the misconduct are high-ranking members of the school’s board of trustees, according to a lawsuit.
Thomas and Dru Ahlborg are suing the Montessori School of Denver and its director, Stephanie Pax Flanigan, claiming their 13-yearold son was repeatedly bullied by up to six other pupils for over a year, conduct school administrators failed to adequately address or curtail, according to the 24-page complaint filed in Denver District Court this week.
The school sits in southeast Denver in the Virginia Village neighborhood, just south of Glendale. Thomas Ahlborg was treasurer of the board of trustees at the time. Dru Ahlborg is a toddler assistant teacher at the school, and the couple have another child who attends classes there.
The Ahlborgs say their son, who is identified as “L.A.” in the lawsuit, was first bullied as an 11-yearold in March 2015 and forced to endure physical and emotional taunting that included being stuffed into lockers, forced to use girls’ restrooms, called numerous derogatory names and general harassment throughout the school year.
School officials in a statement said they were “disappointed” by the lawsuit from a former board member, and denounced its allegations as having “no merit,” saying the school had “responded promptly and appropriately” to the complaints when they occurred.
“The school will respond to the allegations in the appropriate forum, and will do so in a way that protects the confidentiality and privacy rights of all the students involved,” according to a statement sent to The Denver Post from the school’s board of directors.
In the suit, the Ahlborgs said they learned of the initial incident after a school psychologist inquired about their son’s well-being shortly after it occurred. But the Ahlborgs said they only learned about their son enduring relentless bullying for nearly another year afterward when the boy’s grades dropped and he battled depression. The boy did not report the bullying, they said, because he feared additional harm.
The alleged culprits include an eighth-grader who purportedly leads the others in bullying the Ahlborg’s son, whom they describe as having “a learning disability, low muscle tone and poor fine motor muscle coordination.”
The bullying allegedly became so bad that the Ahlborgs said their son contemplated suicide and endured taunts he should jump off a building. He eventually left the school.