Hot on HuffPost Parents:
Barbara Becker: The Swastika in Our Neighborhood
Radley Balko: The New Panic Over Prescription Painkillers
Bullied Student Wins $800K Settlement
Filed under: In The News
Bullies everywhere are going to find it a lot harder to shove kids into lockers, trip them in hallways, call them degrading names and generally make every day at school a living hell.
That's because one victim didn't get mad. He got a lawyer.
Officials for Hudson Area Schools in Michigan were ordered March 3 by a federal jury to pay former student Dane Patterson $800,000 for failing to protect him from school bullies.
"This is going to have implications across the nation," Glenn Stutzky, a Michigan State University instructor and expert on bullying, tells the Detroit Free Press.
Schools across the country now can be held legally accountable for the actions of bullies, he adds.
But school officials in Hudson (a town of 2,300 people just 10 miles north of the Ohio border) remain unconvinced, the Free Press reports. They plan to appeal the decision.
"You're never going to completely stop kids from being mean to kids," Timothy Mullins, the district's lawyer, tells the newspaper.
This case involved a lot more than kids picking on him, Patterson argued. It was a campaign of abuse that lasted for years while teachers and administrators did virtually nothing to stop it.
Kids started calling him names in junior high, Patterson tells the Free Press. It got worse when he got to high school. Bullies allegedly shoved him into lockers and hurled sexual insults. He claims his locker and notebook were defaced with similar [and worse] insults many times.
Patterson tells the newspaper he complained to teachers and administrators, but nothing changed.
"I can't even put into words the pain and suffering that I went through for years," Patterson, now 19, tells the Free Press. "It's something that I would not want anyone else to go through."
The final straw, he says, came when he was a sophomore and a naked student rubbed against him in a locker room.
He and his parents filed a lawsuit against the school district five years ago. Citing Title IX [the Equal Opportunity in Education Act] and using the sexual nature of the bullying, they pursued a sexual harassment lawsuit.
Hudson schools do have an anti-bullying policy in place. School officials told the jury they took action against specific bullies when the individuals could be identified.
Terry Heiss, an attorney for Patterson, argued what the district failed to do was stop a pattern of abuse within the school.
He argued teachers and administrators could have provided more anti-bullying education, instituted more monitors or taken other steps to break the cycle of abuse.
That sounds simple enough, Mullins tells the Free Press.
"But when you've got 500 kids and you're supposed to predict what any two or three or one are going to do in advance, well good luck," he says. "If somebody writes dirty names on a boy's locker and you can't identify who it is, you can't punish the whole school."
Patterson tells the Free Press he feels vindicated, but his mother, Dena Patterson, adds her son is still dealing with the emotional damage inflicted in high school.
"I don't know how you get back eight years," she tells the paper, adding that her son won't go away to college and live in a dorm for fear of other students.
"We don't want another student, another parent, to endure what we have seen," she tells the paper.
Patterson tells the paper he hopes the verdict will help people realize bullying is a serious -- and scarring -- problem.
"It's a terrible thing, and I'm hoping with this verdict that schools will have to enforce stricter sexual harassment and bullying policies," he tells the paper.
Related: Who is Affected by Bullying
Your<span>Voice</span>
Ask Us Anything About Parenting
TheTalkies:RelatedVideos
-
Helping Children Who Get Picked On
Find out what you can do in order to help kids who are being bullied or picked on at school.
-
How to Help Your Daughter Deal with School Bullies
How would you handle it if your daughter were being bullied? You'd be outraged, of course, but before you call the school, listen to Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out.
-
School Counseling - Bullying
In this video you will learn about the growing concern on bullying.
-
How to Deal with a School Bully
In this child video, learn four simple rules your child can apply to deal with a schoolyard bully.
SitesWeLove
- Site Map
- |
- Staff
- |
- Terms of Service
- |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Trademarks
- |
- Advertise With Us
- |
- About Our Ads
- |
- AOL Downloads
- |
- Contact Us
- |
© Copyright 2012 AOL Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Aol Family
ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
3-09-2010 @ 8:13PM
Denise said...What courage you have. You stood up to the people who made your life and I am sure other kids life miserable. You are stronger then you realize and these bullies are the ones that helped make you a stronger person that is the one thing they gave you in all the torment they dished out but you survived. Now you have to let go and get them out of your head. You define you not other people. I was bullied in school. The one guy that named called me for no reason to me I later ran into him only to find he was an alcoholic and said he did not remember calling me names and he was sorry. People who bully are taking out their anger on someone they feel is weaker then them and you showed your bullies you are not weaker because you stood up for you and everyone else who has been bullied.. God Bless you. These bullies don't remember the hurt the spill on kids in highschool and you cann't believe what they say because they have no recall years later of the names they called you or anyone else. A BULLY IS SOMEONE WHO IS HURTING INSIDE AND WANTS TO GET THE HURT OUT. BUT THEY ARE DOING IT IN A NEGATIVE WAY. You need to move on and go to college and don't let them win and take away your future. The best vengance against a bully is to become successful.. So go and make millions and show them they did not get in your head.
Reply
3-13-2010 @ 3:45PM
Sheila Olberg said...i feel ur pain. this story hits close 2 home. just last week, my 2nd grader wuz urinated on by a 6th grader. face 2 face...all over the front of his shirt...the school handled the matter as poorly as anyone could.i was't notified for hours. they didn't clean my son, or call the police. they even questioned his sincerety of the story, if he even got peed on...(his shirt was soaked w/urine and smelled of urine) this boy wuz never repremanded or disciplined. my children r now out of the school system & i had to take a leave from work to homeschool my children. this needs to stop & it needs to stop now! if the officials can't even admit they cud do a better job, what will happen??????
Reply
3-23-2010 @ 4:43PM
sal said...It is a shame that you have to resort to pulling your children out of school due to the school's inept response. Let's just hope spelling and grammar won’t be part of the home schooling curriculum because your abilities in this area compares to that of a first grader. I too know how it feels to have a child bullied. The difference is that I can’t bring on a hefty lawsuit to be “compensated” for because the bully in my situation was my child’s stepmother. It was a horrific experience. My child was constantly bullied by her while his father was out. When my son and I spoke to his father about it, his father wouldn’t believe any of it. He actually questioned if our son was making it all up. It hurts to see our children in pain, especially when we know they are speaking up about being bulled. It is an injustice when the person who can help the most in the situation doesn’t put forth an honest effort. It takes a lot of courage to speak up as a victim. I hope your children will get through this situation quickly and are able to reenter the school system again. As for my son, we have handled the situation and will continue to do so if it ever happens again. I just hope his stepmother has matured and now realizes how painful these situations can be. I also hope she has sought help to deal with the reasons as to why she chooses to bully a child.
4-13-2010 @ 8:54AM
Mme Kelly said...I think it's about time something like that happened. I am a teacher at a middle/high school. And while the school is right in saying that they can't always prevent and keep their eyes on everyone, it translates more to me into laziness. Whenever I hear of bullying or threats I take it up immeadiatly and bring it to the principal or whoever. I also follow it through and check to see what happened. I can't allow it, not in my room, not in my school. It' s exhausting sometimes to track people down, to walk students to their classrooms because they are afraid and to be on the look out at all times. But what kind of person- what kind of TEACHER would I be if I allowed it to happen? By sweeping it under the rug and saying it's impossible is the wrong attitude and that school district will probably face this over and over again as they let the bullies truly run the school. If every teacher just stepped up about 5%, accountablilty and responsibility to the saftey of the students would soar and students would feel not only safe, but valued in their school.
Reply
8-11-2010 @ 12:33AM
Robin said...I would like to connect with Dane's mother. Please visit www.bullypolice.org and link to AZ and find contact information for me.
AZ Director for Bully Police
Thank you.
Reply
9-01-2011 @ 9:09AM
DemandEquality said...What needs to happen is administrators and teachers who do not enforce the law should lose their certification and be charged with violating state education law. Maybe if they had to pay the ultimate price for failing to protect the rights of students to have a fear-free education, they will do their jobs.
Reply