Ashland family sues Southern Boone School District alleging inaction over bullying
ASHLAND, Mo. (KMIZ)
An Ashland family filed a lawsuit Friday against the Southern Boone School District, its Board of Education and 11 others saying the district failed to address bullying.
Tawnya Samuel and Michael Samuel and their attorney, Tarak Alexander Devkota, filed the lawsuit in federal court on behalf of the Samuels' minor son known as C.S.
The Samuels' son is enrolled as a student at Southern Boone Middle School, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit names 11 people, in addition to the School District and its Board of Education. Those defendants range in rank from principal Justin Griffith and interim Superintendent Tim Roth to librarians and counselors.
According to the lawsuit, C.S. has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and has developed anxiety and depression.
The lawsuit states that C.S. has an education plan in place that the district has not followed, which affected his education and socialization.
Those named in the lawsuit broke federal law by not reporting harassment that C.S. suffered, according to the family.
The 10-year-old has been subjected to name calling, tripping, kicking, pushing threats of physical harm, told to "go die," hit and choked by students and accused of lying by teachers and staff, according to court documents.
"We've gone to the school board. We've laid out having guest speakers. We've talked to the principal, and we've had private meetings," said Michael Samuel. "We've had lots of issues with bullying all the way to the point of student bullying and teachers bullying, and possibly some administration."
Samuel said their son has been dealing with bullying for over a year. He said they have asked that the student who was bullying C.S. be moved to a separate class. However, he said they were put in the same classes.
Samuel said the student has turned C.S.'s childhood friends against him. "He was bullied out of all of his childhood friends that used to come to his birthday parties and such, and he was basically being told to kill himself and nobody wants him here, and nobody likes him, the whole rest of the school year."
"The good news is our son has a lot of support and a good family," said Samuel. "But, we've had to put our son in therapy ever since."
Samuel said they have moved their daughter to a private school. However, they are not able to transfer C.S. because of the record the school has on him.
Southern Boone's Spokesperson Matt Sharp, responded to ABC 17's request for an interview with the following statement:
"At Southern Boone County R-I School District, the safety and well-being of our students is our utmost priority. The school district takes allegations of bullying very seriously and works proactively to educate students and staff on identifying signs of bullying or student distress. The Southern Boone School District has been made aware of the pending civil action filed against the district.
"As professional educators, we strive to always put students’ safety and well-being first, and the district is committed to maintaining a safe learning and working environment free from bullying or intimidation. Within our district, we take allegations of bullying seriously, and complete an investigation as appropriate, into such reports, in accordance with board policies and state law.
"Due to student privacy laws and pending legal action, the school district is not able to provide any additional information at this time."
LINKS: School district board policies on bullying, student discipline and discrimination
Regulation JG-R1: STUDENT DISCIPLINE
Policy AC: PROHIBITION AGAINST ILLEGAL DISCRIMINATION, HARASSMENT AND RETALIATION
All of the school district’s board policies are available here: https://simbli.eboardsolutions.com/Policy/PolicyListing.aspx?S=37
Devkota said the lawsuit will be served to Southern Boone, which will have a chance to repond.
"The Samuel family has exhausted every remedy they had administratively and their complaints fell on deaf ears," Devotka said. "The only way to awaken a deaf ear is to smack somebody with a petition for damages, where there might be economic damage caused to them, and then they might change police to stop these suits from happening. So it's important, it's imperative, that this lawsuit be filed because they have been left with no other option."
