Family of boy, 13, who died after bullying attack get $27m from school district
The family of a 13-year-old boy who died after being beaten by two middle school classmates at their campus in southern California has secured a $27m settlement in what the plaintiffs’ attorneys are calling the largest bullying-related settlement in the history of US litigation.
Felipe and Juana Salcedo received the settlement from the Moreno Valley unified school district over the September 2019 death of Diego Stolz.
The move should put academic institutions “on notice to find ways to effectively deal with bullying and to enact real anti-bullying policies”, the couple’s attorney, Neil Gehlawat, said in a statement on Thursday.
Gehlawat’s statement, issued a day after the Salcedos settled their case against the Moreno Valley district, also expressed a hope that “real change will come and there will be a renewed focus on anti-bullying programs across the nation”.
A district spokesperson told the Associated Press that school officials would not be discussing the settlement. According to the Salcedos, who became the guardians of Stolz after both of his parents died, Moreno Valley officials ignored a series of complaints that their child was being bullied at Landmark middle school, where he attended. Stolz was essentially left to fend for himself because the school about 65 miles (105km) east of Los Angeles had not implemented an antibullying policy at the time of the complaints, the Salcedos contended.
It reached a fatal conclusion when one of Stolz’s eighth-grade classmates struck him in the head while they were on their lunch break. Stolz – who had his arms lowered at his side – fell, hit his head against a pillar and continued being beaten by two classmates while a bystander recorded video of the attack.
The Salcedos’ child died nine days later from a brain injury.
Stolz’s assailants, who were 14 at the time of his death, pleaded guilty in juvenile court to involuntary manslaughter and assault with force likely
to cause great bodily injury. The teens had spent nearly seven weeks in custody by that point – a judge declined to sentence them to any additional jail time but ordered them to take anger management therapy.
Meanwhile, the Moreno Valley district replaced Landmark’s principal and vice-principal. It also modified its bullying reporting system and provided additional training for employees, though none of that staved off the wrongful-death lawsuit which the Salcedos subsequently filed.
Another of the Salcedos’ attorneys, Dave Ring, said in a statement that “schools need to realize that bullying can never be tolerated and that any complaints of bullying and assault must be taken seriously” when first received.
Stolz’s relatives described him as a lover of video games, soccer, music and hiking. “He did his best in school and had a lot of friends,” said a statement from his family’s attorneys.
Juana and Felipe Salcedo were Stolz’s aunt and uncle who raised him following the deaths of his parents.
“He had a good life,” the plaintiffs’ statement said. “He was also the victim of constant verbal and physical bullying, and in the end, it killed him.”