Bullied boy brain-damaged after suicide attempt; Deal is reached with family.

Anchorage Daily News ^ | February 8, 2004 | KATIE PESZNECKER

[skeptoid]

Bullied boy brain-damaged after suicide attempt SCHOOL DISTRICT: Deal is reached with family of gifted Central Middle School student.

By KATIE PESZNECKER Anchorage Daily News

(Published: February 8, 2004)

The Anchorage School District has settled out of court with a family that said their 14-year-old son tried to kill himself and was left permanently brain-damaged because of relentless bullying that school staffers knew about but didn't stop. School District officials and the family's attorney have declined to disclose any details of the settlement, including the amount of money being paid. The lawyer, Dennis Maloney, said the case is so outrageous that he has founded an anti-school-harassment group called Bye Bye Bullies and is helping to sponsor a conference on the subject this summer. Documents and testimony in the case, in an 8-inch-thick file in the Anchorage state courthouse, describe the boy as testing at highly gifted levels in math and science. In 1997, he enrolled at Central Middle School, a program that specializes in those areas. He was fascinated by rockets and airplanes, mastered rock climbing, and obtained his pilot's license at age 14.

[skeptoid]

No mention of amount, but sounds like volentary silence for now.

Anyone know of similar cases with settelments?

[John Jorsett]

Were the parents aware of the magnitude of the problem and yet sent the kid to that school anyway?

[BlazingArizona]

Another victim of "publik skul edukayshun".

Time to start expelling bullies so the better kids can learn. Let it be broadcast that we're condemning them to a life of minimum-wage labor.

[OldEagle]

I agree!

[NYCVirago]

What about Tom's suspensions or detentions for fights or skirmishes in which he and his mother both said he was the victim and, at most, was simply fighting back? Gail Opalinski, director of middle school education for the district, testified that any student who "participated in an action" is subject to disciplinary measures. "It has worked in the past," Opalinski testified. "I believe that was an appropriate response."

This is one of the many things that's screwed up about the school system today. The kid is bullied, he fights back, and he gets punished just like the instigator does. And the school *still* thinks that's an appropriate measure. Let the kids have the right to self-defense, and a lot of this stuff would go away.

[abclily]

God bless the children in our public schools.

[MotleyGirl70]

Children always don't want to disclose bulling to their parents, probably for fear of shame or embarassment.

[netmilsmom]

>>Medical records from the emergency room at Providence Alaska Medical Center that day say the boy's mother told doctors that her son "has been under lots of emotional stress at school" and "has no friends and is teased often at school." <<

I would have been checking the homeschool laws in Alaska.

[MotleyGirl70]

A few years ago I saw a "Dateline" type program showing how these bullies act on hidden camera. They are down right mean for being so small. Evil little kids.

[holyscroller]

What a rotten evil bunch of classmates this poor kid had. I hope what they did haunts them the rest of their lives. Like the old saying goes, "a mind is a terrible thing to waste," and they wasted his. He was obviously a lot smarter than his tormentors. They should be forced to support him the rest of his life.

[metesky]

Time to start expelling bullies so the better kids can learn.

I have a very good friend whose young small son was being harassed on the school bus on a daily basis by an older, bigger boy.

He tried to make the principal aware of what was happening and was warned repeatedly that his boy would be punished if there was any retaliation.

Totally fed up, he finally told the principal that if anything bad happened to his son he would have both the principal's arms broken.

"No need to get upset, Mr _____"

Indeed

Meanwhile he had been teaching his son self-defense.

As soon as the principal backed off, the very next time the bully struck, he got his head handed to him.

End of story. No cops, no lawyers. Problem solved.

[Heatseeker]

Bullying is a 'hot topic' among educators now, which by itself makes me a bit suspicious.

But - the fact that the school destroyed records between the boy's suicide attempt and when the suit was brought - that speaks volumes, doesn't it?

[MotleyGirl70]

I can relate, being bullied myself in grade school. Being small for my age at the time, the girls were worse than the boys. In the end, when, "I grew into my shoes", if you will, they couldn't hurt me anymore. I hurt them back through the years with my academic and athletic achievements.

[dennisw]

BTTTTTTT

[Capriole]

Oh, yeah, this is typical. My nine-year-old son was set upon and beaten by a pack of ten- and eleven-year-old girls--young wolves of a different race, who saw him as a rich blonde boy from whom they could extort money and take out their racial resentments. He, being raised as a gentleman, mistook the rules and didn't raise a hand to them. And he was made to attend a "counselling session" at the school in which the hoodlums merely agreed that he did not owe them any money. They weren't expelled or suspended; "everybody had made mistakes," the idiot school principal said.

Far as I can see, the only mistake made was mine, in letting my child attend a school with young racist criminals. This is being changed.

[Tennessee_Bob]

Sounds like my situation when I was in fifth grade. I was always getting picked on by the class bully, until we went on vacation in Montana. My cousin Larry had just returned from his second tour in Vietnam and announced "It's time you learn how to fight."

We went out in the backyard, took off my glasses, and he told me to "get ready to fight." I got my fists up, and he announces - "First rule - there's no such thing as a 'fair fight,'" and kicks me in the crotch. After I got up, he says "Lesson is over."

We go back to Colorado Springs, and first day back in school, the bully and his friends surround me. I take my glasses off, he gets his fists up, and I ask "Do you know the rules of fighting?" and kick him in the crotch. I put my glasses back on and walk home.

Never had another problem after that.

[MotleyGirl70]

I can relate, being bullied myself in grade school. Being small for my age at the time, the girls were worse than the boys. In the end, when, "I grew into my shoes", if you will, they couldn't hurt me anymore. I hurt them back through the years with my academic and athletic achievements.

When I told my parents about the bulling...it doesn't hurt to have an older brother (four years older) looking out for me. He wasn't always there, physically, but they knew I had an older, bigger brother.

[MotleyGirl70]

Excellent!

[the_devils_advocate_666]

The point is, schools were not created to raise our children. If they misbehave, they should be removed (why does the gov't force parents to keep them in the system?), if they aren't doing well in the public school environment, parents should take them out. Public school is simply a service that is supported by our tax dollars and should be available for those who chose to take advantage.