Family sues School District over bullying

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September 27, 2011

KIM SMITH DEDAM Press-Republican The Press Republican Tue Sep 27, 2011, 05:13 PM EDT

SARANAC LAKE — The family of a child bullied with racial slurs last year is seeking $6 million in damages from Saranac Lake School District.

Amy and Hiram Oliveras, whose daughter was the target of racial slurs drawn in deodorant on school property in June 2010, filed the claim in Northern New York District Court. They had notified the school a year ago that litigation was coming.

RACIAL SLUR

The female student, referred to as "A.O." in the lawsuit, was 11 years old when the incident took place.

Saranac Lake Police investigated and interviewed more than a dozen students, but no one was arrested.

The child's backpack had been "ripped and destroyed," court papers say, and the words "f—k ni—er" were spelled out on cement nearby.

The lawsuit names the school, Superintendent Gerald Goldman, Middle School Principal Patricia Kenyon and School Board President Debra Lennon.

BULLYING 'CONTINUES'

The family is seeking a jury trial in the case and claim in the papers that the girl is still being bullied.

"School authorities were made aware throughout the past two years and advised of bullying and violence toward the minor," the lawsuit charges, "and of the chronic harassment and violence toward A.O., which continues to date."

Litigation says the school "directed and arranged" for A.O. to be partnered at summer school "with the student who had sexually harassed and bullied her by grabbing her breast and threatening to beat her up and who was a suspect of the June 21 backpack incident."

The lawsuit alleges the same student "pushed A.O. down several stairs at school" on Sept. 8, 2010, and that "no corrective action was taken."

Repeated violence and bullying has caused "extreme anxiety," litigants charge, leaving the victim "unable to utilize the bathroom facilities at school all day long due to extreme fear and distress."

ALLEGATIONS

The Oliverases maintain that district authorities failed on six counts to protect their child; train and supervise employees; set policy to prevent unconstitutional acts; discipline students and personnel who committed unconstitutional acts; set policy for reporting harassment and bullying incidents; and didn't protect A.O. after they "promised to do so."

Legal papers served recently suggested officials knew the victim was suffering extreme emotional and mental anguish and that "students encouraged plaintiff A.O. to commit suicide."

It claims five violations of civil, human and constitutional rights, one of negligence and one of gross negligence, seeking $1 million in compensatory damages and "not less than" $5 million in punitive relief.

TRAINING SOUGHT

The lawsuit also looks to mandate discrimination training programs for school employees in demanding that defendants review and correct "all unconstitutional, discriminatory and retaliatory treatment" in the district.

A.J. Bosman, an attorney in Rome who works with the Children's Rights Initiative, is lead attorney for the victim. She did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking further comment.

Glens Falls attorney Benjamin R. Pratt, Jr., with the firm Bartlett, Pontiff, Stewart and Rhodes, represents the School District. A phone message left with the firm not returned.

The district is saying nothing pending an outcome in the case.

STEPS TAKEN

School officials put anti-bullying outreach into place at the start of school last year, while a Diversity Club formed at the High School.

Ongoing redress includes an informational guide printed and published online that directs students, staff and community to resources, phone numbers and policy on sexual harassment, bullying and hazing.

School officials reacted initially after the backpack incident by publishing a letter of apology.

"To the entire Saranac Lake community and to the Oliveras family, in particular, we apologize," that said.

"We cannot undo this. We are all damaged here. Hate drives us apart, and hate is working hard at the moment."

At that time, some 15 months ago, Superintendent Goldman said school staff were researching ways to teach tolerance in school, anticipating the process to heal and renew trust would take some time.

"This has to be a systemic thing," he said then.

"How do we weave this on a daily basis into our school programs?

The School Board read in June a formal new policy drafted to address diversity education and bullying.

Email Kim Smith Dedam at: kdedam@pressrepublican.com