Suit Alleges School Failed To Address Bullying Of Student With Autism
By Michelle DiamentA lawsuit filed Monday in Seattle alleges that a student with autism was repeatedly bullied at school while the school did nothing to allay the problem.
The suit filed on a behalf the now 20-year-old man, who is identified as J.B.M., says that other students punched, kicked, slapped, shoved and pushed him. He was also called names, spit on and had liquids poured on him, according to the complaint. This all occurred years ago while he was in the sixth and seventh grades.
As a result, J.B.M. now has anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the suit.
J.B.M.’s parents reported the abuse to school officials. And an educational specialist and a school district psychologist even said that the bullying needed to be addressed. Nonetheless, the school did little to address the problem, according to the suit.
Now the family is seeking unspecified monetary damages from the school district, reports The Seattle Times. To read more click here.
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The boy who put Missy Jenkins in a wheelchair was bullied every day. Her story is already required reading in some schools. The bullying must stop, and her book is one way to help that happen.
Well my son is a Senior in High School now and he has been bullied, beaten, spit on, verbally abused since middle school. He is high functioning Autistic. The school system always blames him and his actions rather than do something to the bullies. It is easier to deal with one child than the many that do the abusing. He was even accused of having a hit list after the Virgina Tech shootings. Our life was hell for 2 weeks. Of course it was proven that he did not and did nothing to provoke the accusations. We never even got an apology from the school.
For anyone who is looking to stop bullying, filing complaints with the federal Office for Civil Rights for your region is a good choice. First, document any incident or a number of incidents. Wait to see what the school district does, usually nothing, and if that’s the case, you file a complaint now not only based on the lack of action, but on failure to have an appropriate policy in place to prevent harassment on the basis of disability. OCR has great model policies and will often come in and require schools to change the way they are doing business. It’s still not a sure fire stop, but it make a difference over the long haul and you can never tell when the hundred drops of water in the bucket are finally going to tip it over and cause change.
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