http://www.nbcchicago.com/investigations/Fourth-Grader-Sues-Fellow-Fourth-Grader-For-Bullying-263557201.html


This is a good friend of mine's son. Its been going on all year and he's had meetings with just about everyone up the food chain in the school district and they've done absolutely nothing about it. The kid has been beaten up close to 20x over the course of the year, all by the same kid. Numerous police reports have been filed. The school has responded by doing nothing other than promise they will look into it and make it stop which they didn't.

Its shocking in this day and age with all the awareness of bullying that there are still schools that don't take this seriously.

I didn't want the case cause its not my area of law, but hopefully they take this school district and the kid's parents for every penny they've got.

Real good kid too, just small and apparently that's enough to get your ass kicked every day by a bully.


The story is getting pretty big, they will be on Good Morning America tomorrow and ABC tonight.

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I hope that bully denied him water too.

amazing this shit still happens. i'd go after the school district who has deeper pockets though.

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest

Path of least resistance. They might have to do...gasp...paperwork! Of course, if some kid has had enough shit and fights back, then there's plenty of time for zero tolerance.

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Good for the family.

Let this be a warning to some of you and how you treat people on this board.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

That's what's mind-boggling to me.

Why, it's almost as if educators didn't like put-upon little shits the first time around.

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

The police did nothing after several reports were filed after 20+ physical assaults were alleged? And yet this is the school's fault.
Makes sense.

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Seems there must be some wacky reason. Schools, at least here, are way over the top zero tolerance.

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Elections have consequences.

These kids aren't in 4th grade yet. These were 3rd graders.

You'll never know the other side, but hmmm.........mom loses her job in school cafeteria - after many police reports were filed and she doesn't think the school did enough to the other kid. Any guesses as to how that may have gone down?

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i'm sorry, this is a terrible situation.... but to read they may garnish future wages of a 4th grader in a potential settlement is almost as crazy as the police/school not doing anything about 20+ incidents.

Why would a school/district AND the police completely ignore 20+ incidents if they actually happened? What would be the upside for the school if they did that?
Especially if the alleged victim is the child of an employee at the same school? If anything, the children of employees are probably watched a little closer than everybody else.

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you would hope no school would be this negligent.... i bet the truth is somewhere in the middle.

I think only one police report was filed, a few months ago after the kid threatened to bring a knife to school and kill the kid. Not sure what if anything the cops did.

But, over the course of the year there were several instances all brought to the attention of the principal who refused to do anything. The parents finally went over his head and contacted the school board directly and ended up having a couple meetings with the superintendent who also did nothing. Basically they told him they would keep the kids separate but they didn't. And nothing was ever done to the other kid nor was there ever much of an attempt to make his parents accountable.

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Again, makes little sense in today's climate. Is the bad kid somehow connected?

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Elections have consequences.

So they properly followed chain of command at the district, repeatedly making the same claims, and nobody at the district thought anything bad happened. And then the police found the same thing. All for the child of an employe at the school vs (I'm assuming) a child of a non-employee.

And then mom lost her job. But mom didn't file a lawsuit for losing her job - that was just thrown in for glam factor. If mom was wrongly terminated for these incidents between children, that would be the easier/more obvious lawsuit of course. But she didn't. That's strange to me.

Again, what would be the upside for the district to ignore 20 events against an 8 year old if they actually happened?

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The article said she was fired after the lawsuit was done and now that is part of the lawsuit.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Ah, I watched the video. They didn't say that. I bet there's more to that part.

Still - why would a school repeatedly ignore dozens of violent acts against an 8 year old?

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As it should be. That was a real idiotic move by the school district.
However, based on what I read, it seems that every move by the school district was idiotic.

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I'm a Mt. Prospect resident. I really can't believe the stupidity of these "educators". I'm sure it all has to do with legal repercussions.

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favrefan said:"Chris Coghlan isn't gonna pay your rent, Jimmy."

If several levels of school employees and the police find that no bullying took place - did bullying take place?
This is a civil case. Are they gonna call a bunch of other 8 year olds to testify? Should they?

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I'm going to guess that the perpetrating child is a BD "disabled" student. Possibly autistic or Aspergers. Therefore, the school couldn't take action or enforce things the way they could with "normal" students. The only thing they could have done was probably expel him or keep him in his classroom during lunch and recess which would also draw a lawsuit.

A child with a disability is subject to the same disciplinary action as any other student. Especially up to 10 days out of school suspension. After that it gets trickier but still essentially holds true.

Not many 8 year olds get suspended for anything "typical" - much less more than 10 days.

edit: however, if your guess is true - think about the grounds of the lawsuit for a second......

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They are subject to discipline, but they do not understand the discipline, thus rendering it useless. On top of that, the parents would complain that they are being punished for having a disability.

I don't think the bully is disabled. His parents responded that he had anger issues.

This situation really does defy common sense so there's no reason to try and apply it to the facts involved. My friend kept bringing this to my attention all year and I kept telling him to file complaints with the school district thinking that common sense would prevail and they would take great care to rectify the situation in light of the current climate regarding bullying, but at every step they were met with the same level of ambivalence and inaction. It was as if they were more afraid of offending the bully than stopping the situation. When he met with the head of the school board last month I thought for sure it would be fixed, but that meeting resulted in the school board just backing the principal who has essentially done nothing at all to stop it.

Not sure if the lawsuit will be successful since its a very high standard of willful and wanton conduct, but I would guess that heads will roll at the school and school board regardless of the outcome.

My friend's kid is 8 and he was coming home with black eyes and bruises on a regular basis. Got to the point where he was terrified to even go to school.

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Probably a bad guess.

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This happened to a friend of ours this past year. Did pretty much the same things. Proper channels, police, school, principal, board, etc. It usually ends up the parents of the bully either can't get the help they need or they don't care. You can't really do anything to punish the bully. Even if you try it's possible to be worsening the situation, feelings of isolation or anger are intensified. If his parents says he has anger issues and is evaluated by a professional it works in his favor.

The same kids at our school are in the principal's office for the same type of stupid shit all the time. I sometimes think the zero tolerance policy/no anger at all is a bad approach. It can be how those things are worked out but that's all mo.

They should take it to twitter! that will solve the problem!

just expel the kid. very simple

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Reality is your friend, not your enemy. -- Seacrest