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Jury Orders School District To Pay $800,000 to Bullied Student

Hudson, Michigan—in what could be a landmark decision, a jury has ordered the school district to pay $800,000 to a student who underwent years of bullying by his classmates. According to the original complaint, the student, Dane Patterson, argued that the school failed to protect him from years of bullying, some of which was sexual in nature. Overall, the verdict puts the Hudson area school district, as well as others, on alert that it isn’t enough to simply stop a student from bullying another student once. Instead, it is necessary for there to be continuous efforts to prevent and stop systemic bullying, too.

Patterson experienced the bullying starting in middle school. First, it was simply name- calling or being shoved into the lockers. However, it quickly escalated when Patterson entered high school. In fact, the Patterson family had enough when a naked student rubbed up against Dane in the locker room during his 10th grade school year. There were other sexual-based insults and taunts, too, such as names written on Dane’s notebook or locker. But nothing topped the locker room incident and Dane’s parents knew something had to be done.

In 2005, the Patterson family filed a lawsuit under Title IX of the Equal Opportunity in Education Act, using the sexually tinged harassment as the basis. This week the jury gave the Patterson family some vindication when they ordered the school district to pay the damages to Dane, now 19. More important, anti-bullying experts argue, is that the verdict will send a clear message to schools that they are responsible for sexual harassment and bullying and must keep a constant eye out for such behavior.

Bullied Student Wins $800K Settlement

by Tom Henderson (Subscribe to Tom Henderson's posts) Mar 9th 2010 1:00PM


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.
 

 

Court awards bullied Michigan student $800,000

By Peggy Walsh-Sarnecki

DETROIT FREE PRESS

Sunday, Mar. 07 2010

DETROIT — In what experts say could be a landmark decision, a Michigan school district was ordered last week to pay $800,000 to a student who claimed the school did not do enough to protect him from years of bullying, some sexually tinged.

Last week’s jury verdict against Hudson Area Schools puts districts on notice
that it’s not enough to stop a student from bullying another. There needs to be
a concerted effort to stop systemic bullying, too.

Essentially, the federal court ruling says schools can be held responsible for
what students do, if there is a pattern of harassment or if they don’t do
enough to provide a safe environment.

“This is going to have implications across the nation,” said Glenn Stutzky, a
Michigan State University instructor and an expert on bullying.

The district’s attorney, however, says the verdict puts schools in the tricky
position of being held liable for student behavior.

The district plans to appeal.

“You’re never going to completely stop kids from being mean to kids,” said
Timothy Mullins of Giamarco, Mullins and Horton of Troy, Mich.

It started with name-calling in middle school and escalated as Dane Patterson
entered high school. Some of the harassment was bullying, such as being shoved into lockers.

Other harassment was decidedly sexual in nature. He was called sexual insults, his locker and notebook were defaced with similar names, and worse. He and his parents say they reported the abuse, and yet it continued. Finally, in 10th grade, he was taunted in a locker room by a naked student rubbing against him.

That was the last straw for the Patterson family. In 2005, they sued Hudson
Area Schools under Title IX, the Equal Opportunity in Education Act, using the
sexually tinged bullying as the basis for a sexual harassment lawsuit.

Last week a jury in U.S. District Court told the school district to pay
$800,000 in damages to Patterson, now 19. Anti-bullying proponents say the case will send a message to all school districts that they are responsible for
sexual harassment and, by extension, bullying.

For the Pattersons, however, the verdict is much simpler. It’s vindication.

“I can’t even put into words the pain and suffering that I went through for
years,” Dane Patterson said. “It’s something that I would not want anyone else to go through.”

While Patterson said he feels vindicated and is trying to move forward, his
mother can’t help but look back on their ordeal.

“I don’t know how you get back eight years,” Dena Patterson said. She said her son is so emotionally damaged by his experiences, he can’t even go away to college and live in a dorm with other students. “We said it was worth standing up. We don’t want another student, another parent to endure what we have seen.”

Hudson schools, like most school districts, has an anti-bullying policy, and it
took action against individual students when the bully could be identified.
What the district failed to do is stop the pattern of abuse, said Terry Heiss,
attorney for Patterson. For example, the school could have done more
anti-bullying education, instituted more monitors or other measures to stop the
pattern.

But this case makes it clear that having a policy, or even punishing individual
bullies is not enough to stop a school from being liable, said Stutzky.

School officials will now have to show they were not indifferent, and that they
made sure there wasn’t a broader pattern of harassment beyond the individual case that went unchecked.

“If you only deal with things on an isolated case, that doesn’t meet the
standard for an effective response,” Stutzky said.

But Mullins said the verdict leaves schools in a difficult situation.

“It sounds simple, 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,” Mullins said. “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.”

The Patterson case initially was dismissed by the lower court in Detroit. But
in October, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit reversed that
decision, saying the family had demonstrated that there was enough of a
question of whether the district’s response was adequate to go forward with the trial.

Patterson was called pig or sexual insults and pushed into lockers, among other types of harassment, “on a daily basis” in sixth grade. When they complained, the family was sometimes told, “Kids will be kids; it’s middle school,” according to the court papers.

The harassment escalated in seventh grade, according to the lawsuit. Dane
Patterson wanted to quit school, and his grades slipped.

Eighth grade was better. He began going to a resource room, a kind of study
hall, to be counseled, and the lawsuit says the resource room teacher was
helping him cope with the problems.

But ninth grade meant a change to high school. The Pattersons wanted their
child to continue working with the resource room teacher, who had been
successful the previous year. But the school district said no. The bullying
continued in 10th grade, culminating in the locker room incident.

“It’s a terrible thing, and I’m hoping with this verdict that schools will have
to enforce stricter sexual harassment and bullying policies,” Patterson said.

 

 

 

 

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