Ohio School Wants Bullying Lawsuit Dropped

CLEVELAND — An Ohio school district being sued by two families who claim their children's deaths were caused by bullying has asked a federal judge to dismiss one of the lawsuits.

The Mentor Public School District said in a court filing last week that 16-year-old Sladjana Vidovic was not a student at Mentor High School when she committed suicide in October 2008. Vidovic's parents sued the school district, superintendent and principal in August, claiming their daughter was severely bullied.

The school district also claims that Sladjana's parents, Dragan and Celija Vidovic, lack capacity to bring claims on her behalf because her estate was closed before they filed the lawsuit. Records in Lake County Probate Court show that Sladjana Vidovic's estate was reopened Wednesday retroactively to Aug. 4, the date it was closed.

Lake County Probate Court Judge Ted Klammer wrote Wednesday that the estate was closed because of a clerical error.

"The estate of Sladjana Vidovic should remain open for the pending wrongful death case," Klammer wrote.

David Kane Smith, an attorney representing the school district, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Vidovic, whose parents are from Croatia, described daily torment at the school in a suicide note written before she hanged herself from her bedroom window. Students mocked her accent, taunted her with insults like "Slutty Jana" and threw food at her.

Her death marked the fourth time in little more than two years that a bullied high school student in Mentor, a small Cleveland suburb on Lake Erie, died by his or her own hand – three suicides, one overdose of antidepressants. One was bullied for being gay, another for having a learning disability, another for being a boy who happened to like wearing pink.

The lawsuit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court seeks unspecified damages. A case management conference between both parties is scheduled for next week in federal court.

Ken Myers, an attorney representing the Vidovics, said he is trying to ascertain whether Sladjana Vidovic was still officially enrolled in the school when she committed suicide. She had stopped attending classes, he said. Whether she was enrolled the day she died does not affect the lawsuit, Myers said.

"The allegation is that they're the ones that – by ignoring all this – led her to this act," he said. "The fact that she saw what was going on and tried to take steps to remedy it by leaving the school doesn't change the lawsuit at all."

The school said in the filing that it considers allegations of harassment and bullying a serious matter that is "effectively addressed through the district's anti-harassment policy and anti-bullying programs."

In April 2009, the parents of Eric Mohat – one of the four students who died – filed a lawsuit against the school district, principal, superintendent and Eric's math teacher. Mohat shot himself in 2007. His parents say other students referred to him with anti-gay slurs and picked on him for wearing pink. After his death, other kids told the Mohats that they had seen the teen relentlessly bullied in math class.

That lawsuit is on hold while the Ohio Supreme Court considers a question of state law regarding the case.

Comments

[GraceNotes]

11:59 AM on 11/16/2010

If a school can enforce zero-tolerance policies for drugs, weapons and cell phones, why can't they enforce zero-tolerance policies for bullying?

[KJLSanDiego]

10:16 PM on 11/15/2010

too freeking bad!
they were negligent!
kids need to be safe at school.
I verbally eviscerate bullies all the time, and at-risk kids know they're safe with me, and that they can trust me, and that their school has their back!
Harassment has to be dealt with swiftly and harshly!

[nojob4US]

09:30 PM on 11/15/2010

The effects of bullying last far beyond the last 'official' day of class at a particular school. The court should reject the schools motion and the school should be held accountable. The number of bullying related suicides indicates a serious problem in the schools ability to provide a safe environment for the children.

Furthermore, the parents of all of these kids should also be held accountable. In all likelihood, they 'protected' the bullies by complaining to the school that their children were also being treated unfairly by the school, even though the 'golden child' was actually a bully. Undue stress in the classroom caused by bullying, physical or emotional, simply should not be allowed and those who do allow it to continue should be held accountable.

I hope the school district uses this as a lesson learned case and makes what appears to be some badly needed policy and policy enforcement changes.

[been2there]

01:02 AM on 11/14/2010

Schols would rather fight lawsuits than deal with bullying. Sad and sick.

[T Ruble]

08:21 PM on 11/13/2010

Parents need to be held responsible for teaching their kids it is ok to bully. By not actively condemning these actions to their kids, they are complicit in allowing it. By the time it gets to high school, it is too late. School systems are not our children's daycare and parent's absolution from raising their children. If you cannot take care of your kid, you shouldn't have had it. The school is only responsible for not stopping it if any adult was involved or present and did nothing. It is a shame that this happened, four times at one school is suspicious, so the suit should be allowed. That said, it is ultimately the parents responsibility to raise strong kids and teach their kids to not bully. I was bullied, I gave it back. If someone bullied any of my friends to this point, we all made sure it stopped.

Part of our education system's problem is we, as society, expect schools to raise our kids and do all the heavy lifting. Does anyone think parents need to take part in raising their kids anymore? "I'm a single parent" argument is your own selfish fault. You shouldn't have kids if you can't take care of them and raise them. Of course there are extenuating circumstances with that, too. But, c'mon! Should the teachers that we vastly underpay as babysitters have to raise your kids? That is lazy, selfish, and ridiculous to think. They need to worry about teaching not babysitting.

[been2there]

01:03 AM on 11/14/2010

While it is true that parents should be held accountable, it is not true that schools should be off the hook. Students are, by law, required to go to school, so the schools must make it a safe experience.

[Jim Thrall]

11:43 PM on 11/14/2010

When only one parent worked outside the home, it was much more feasible to maintain full accountability with families. Since, in America, our economic rise since the 1970s has been buoyed by two-parent worker households becoming the norm, the responsibility has shifted in large part, to schools right or wrong. Schools now have the responsibility to make sure that their students learn the skills and maintain the behaviors commensurate of an educated and socially stable person.

Schools need to treat bullying seriously and respond swiftly and decisively to bullies, the bullied victims, and as many bystanders as they can in order to change their culture from one that is tacitly permissive to one where bullying simply isn't permitted. I am not a fan of "Zero Tolerance" but rather of dealing with incidents and situations, changing behaviors, and removing dangerous children from the opportunity to hurt the vulnerable.

I have a friend whose Special Needs son was repeatedly and savagely beaten on school property several years ago. He now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, has had a complete mental breakdown, and according to his current medical team he may need professional care for the rest of his life. The family lost their first round in court due to DeShaney v. Winnebago which holds that school districts do not have the duty to defend students against the actions of third persons. Even with prior knowledge of the danger.

Something's gotta change, man.

[T Ruble]

09:58 AM on 11/15/2010

Lame excuses for lazy parenting. If you cannot take care of the kid(s), do not have them. We are overcrowded on this rock as it is. One word about "special" needs: Euthanasia.

[KJLSanDiego]

10:13 PM on 11/15/2010

my mom always had to work too, but me and my brother weren't huge ay-holes to other kids! lame excuse!

[Jdaddy1951]

11:05 PM on 11/10/2010

The judges should reject the schools' request to dismiss the lawsuit. The schools should be punished for not tracking down the bullies who caused this child's suicide and expelling them.