Girl faced ‘relentless’ bullying, lawsuit claims
Private school denies claims it failed to protect student as ‘unfounded’
A mother and her teenage daughter are suing Havergal College for $38 million, claiming the Toronto private school failed to protect the daughter from “relentless” bullying and dismissed her suicide attempt as “a contrivance.”
The bullying, allegedly by two high school students at the prestigious school, occurred in person and on social media and included “provocative incitements to suicide,” the lawsuit claims.
College officials were made aware of the bullying and insisted it was “normal teenage behaviour,” the lawsuit alleges.
“The College never took any steps … to investigate these behaviours,” the lawsuit claims.
The allegations have not been tested in court and Havergal denies them as “bald, unfounded and untrue,” arguing that the suit is intended to harm the school.
The two girls accused of bullying deny the allegations. According to their lawyer, Shaun Laubman, the alleged victim is the one who “harassed and intimidated” them.
The alleged incidents occurred when the three students were in Grades 9 and10. A court ruling in April bans publication of information that identifies the girls, including the years the students attended the school.
“Both sides allege the other engaged in hurtful, severe bullying behaviour at school,” Superior Court Justice Frederick Myers wrote in his ruling detailing the ban. “I do not know which side may prevail ultimately.”
The plaintiffs — identified by the pseudonyms Jane Doe and Mother Doe — filed their amended statement of claim with Ontario’s Superior Court of Justice on April 20. It names Havergal, the two students who allegedly bullied Jane Doe and a Havergal official as defendants.
Havergal has not yet filed a response with the court but a lawyer for the all-girls school refuted the allegations in a 12page letter to the Star. “Havergal is deeply committed to preventing and meaningfully addressing bullying,” lawyer Linda Rothstein wrote, adding the school has “comprehensive policies and resources” to do so.
In her letter, Rothstein accuses the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Andrew Rogerson, of “improper conduct and animus against Havergal.” She notes that Rogerson is suing Havergal in a separate $7-million lawsuit launched last year, claiming the school failed to protect his seven-year-old daughter from bullying.
Lawyer Angela Salvatore, who works at Rogerson’s law firm, is representing the plaintiffs in both lawsuits.
Rothstein claims Rogerson’s apparent intention is to “cause significant reputational harm to all the defendants.”
In an email to the Star, Rogerson described attacks against him as “smears” meant to “deflect attention away” from the allegations of Jane Doe and her mother.
Rothstein says that “neither the student nor her mother ever reported to the school that Jane Doe was berated at school or that she had received any kind of incitement to suicide by any other student.”
In her lawsuit, Jane Doe’s mother says her daughter was hospitalized in Grade 9 after contemplating suicide due to the alleged bullying. She was diagnosed as suffering from anxiety and depression and placed on medication.
In Grade10, she “attempted to end her life by taking an overdose of pills” as the bullying continued and school officials embarked on a campaign “designed to make (Jane Doe’s) experience at the College as intolerable as possible,” hoping it would convince her to quit the school, the lawsuit alleges
Havergal claims the only time the mother and daughter raised concerns with the school was during Grade 9 after Jane Doe was hospitalized due to mental health issues.
“It was following her hospitalization that Jane Doe reported that she had had a falling out with certain members of her friend group, which, in combination with a number of other stressors, including a large backlog of outstanding coursework, had caused her to become emotionally distressed to the point of seeking medical care,” Rothstein’s letter claims.
“Neither Jane Doe nor her mother wished to share specific details about the falling out between Jane Doe and her friends; nor did they wish the school to take any action with respect to the reported conflict.
“Nevertheless, the school took every precaution to support Jane Doe and provided her with extensive accommodations in order to allow her to complete her Grade 9 year, including ultimately, by exempting her from writing her final exams,” Rothstein adds.
During Grade 10, Jane Doe and her mother “expressly advised the school that Jane Doe’s conflict with her friend group had been resolved,” Rothstein alleges.
When the Jane Doe statement of claim was initially filed — and obtained by the Star — it included the names of the alleged bullies, both of whom are minors. When the Star initially contacted Havergal for a response, it made clear the girls would not be named in this story — a position the paper also took in a court hearing on the case’s publication ban.
In that hearing, Justice Myers said the threat of publishing names “is being used by the plaintiffs as an intimidation tactic.” He described this conduct as “reprehensible.”
Havergal, a 22-acre campus in Toronto’s affluent Lytton Park neighbourhood, teaches girls from kindergarten to Grade 12.
The Jane Doe lawsuit describes the teen as a high achiever in both academics and athletics, adding she was one of just 20 girls out of more than 100 applicants to be accepted for Grade 9 at the school. Her tuition was more than $30,000.
During an interview with the Star, Jane Doe and her mother stood by their allegations.
The teen said she and her alleged bullies quickly became friends in Grade 9. The lawsuit doesn’t say what caused the falling out. But in the interview, Jane Doe said it began when she became more popular than one of the two friends.
“They sought to isolate her from her friends and to lower her self-esteem by spreading untrue rumours about her, passing unwelcome remarks about her domestic arrangements, stigmatizing her family and barraging her with provocative incitements to suicide,” the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit does not quote the alleged incitements. Jane Doe said in an interview she never showed the ones that came via social media to her mother. The lawsuit says some of the “cyberbullying” occurred via Snapchat, a service that automatically deletes messages after they’re viewed.
Some of the bullying occurred in the school’s hallways and classrooms, in the presence of students and teachers, the lawsuit alleges. The plaintiffs claim the school failed to investigate because one of the alleged bullies comes from a prominent family, and the school wanted to remain in its “good graces” — an allegation Havergal denies.
“At no time did the school minimize the seriousness of the social conflict Jane Doe had reported” in Grade 9, Havergal’s lawyer claims, adding it gave her “extensive” support from its guidance team and social worker. When Jane Doe began missing classes, school officials took the position that her “faltering academic performance was of her own making,” the lawsuit claims. Havergal instead claims she struggled with school work and attendance from the start.
In January of Grade 10, school officials informed her she was on probation and a decision on whether she would be allowed to enrol for the next school year would be made in April, the lawsuit adds.
From that point on, school officials did all they could to force Jane Doe to quit, the plaintiffs allege. She was prevented from joining one school sport, and for another was placed on a squad with one of her bullies, the lawsuit alleges.
The school claims it required Jane Doe to choose between one sport or the other because of her academic struggles, and says it did not know about her conflict with friends at the time. It further claims the girl’s mother supported the required choice.
The suicide attempt in March resulted in Jane Doe being hospitalized and missing school for a month. Her alleged harassers spread a rumour her absence was due to having “contracted a venereal disease through immoral behaviour,” the lawsuit alleges.
When she returned, the lawsuit claims the Havergal official named in the lawsuit “questioned the veracity of the attempted suicide” and began stalking Jane Doe at school. The official would stand inside the student’s class, “in order to stare her down for up to a quarter of an hour,” the plaintiffs claim. Havergal calls those allegations “untrue and utterly preposterous.” The school claims the official interacted with Jane Doe on only two occasions during the two years the teen attended the school.
The lawsuit also claims the college required Jane Doe to be examined by a psychiatrist who worked as a consultant for the school — a link not shared with the student or her mother — and who had previously been given information about her by the school. The psychiatrist’s report to the college “made several prejudicial observations” about Jane Doe and was used to end her attendance at the school, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit asks the court to prevent the psychiatrist’s report from being used as evidence and, further, to have it destroyed.
Rothstein’s letter claims Jane Doe’s mother gave written permission for the school to consult with the psychiatrist about his assessment of her daughter. The school claims it did not, however, receive any medical report from the psychiatrist. It adds that Jane Doe’s lawyer has filed the medical report as an exhibit in the separate lawsuit against Havergal, filed by Andrew Rogerson last fall.
In June, the plaintiffs allege the school told Jane Doe and her mother that “the College would not offer enrolment to the plaintiff,” either to complete Grade 10 or for Grade 11. The school eventually allowed her to complete assignments for Grade 10 in October, delaying her start in a public school in Grade 11, the lawsuit claims.
Jane Doe continues to suffer from panic attacks, low self-esteem, insomnia, social anxiety and suicidal thoughts, it alleges.
In an affidavit filed for arguments on the publication ban, the father of one of the alleged bullies told an entirely different story. He said the “fallout” of his daughter’s friendship with Jane Doe “had a tremendous impact” on his daughter’s mental health.
“As a result of Jane Doe’s conduct my daughter was ostracized and isolated by her friends and subjected to other forms of mental and emotional intimidation,” the father said. “On many occasions, my daughter called home asking to be taken out of Havergal due to the toxic environment created by Jane Doe.”
The father added he “categorically” denies the “serious and inflammatory” allegations against his daughter, “including that she coerced Jane Doe to commit suicide.”
The lawsuit alleges some of the bullying occurred in the school’s hallways and classrooms, in the presence of students and teachers