The parents of a gay 13-year-old student who was allegedly severely bullied for more than a year have sued a suburban Seattle school district for $20 million, alleging school and district officials failed to take sufficient action to end the harassment.
The youth’s parents, Nicole and Doug, spoke to the Seattle Timeson condition of not having their last name published. They claim that their son, a former seventh grader at Evergreen Middle School in Everett, Washington experienced repeated harassment due to his sexual orientation.
The boy, who is openly gay, said he was bullied so severely that he would routinely come home crying. Although he said the harassment started out small, his bullies carried out a campaign of harassment so severe that eventually “half the school” began routinely heckling him with insults in the hallways.
He was also reportedly subjected to anti-Asian as well as anti-gay slurs.
“I’m known in the school, and I’m gay, and that makes me an immediate target,” he told the Times.
Nicole and Doug say the other students at the school attacked their son using offensive slurs, in one instance even demanding he get off the school bus. After that incident, Nicole began driving her son to and from school.
Nicole and Doug also claim their son faced physical bullying. The pair claim that he was twice beaten up in fights videotaped on phones, and uploaded onto an Instagram page devoted to brawls at Evergreen Middle School.
The two videotaped incidents — one in December, one in May — were uploaded to the school’s unofficial Instagram page. The teen’s older sister showed the Times moments from the video where her brother appears to be on the ground, getting punched and kicked.
The fights left the teen sore and bruised and so anxious that he must take medication to sleep, his parents say.
A group of girls among the teen’s biggest tormenters began provoking fights. Though Nicole and Doug’s son had previously been friends with the group, referring to him as their “gay friend,” something caused a rift that led them to begin harassing him over his sexual orientation.
While there were other out gay students at his school — including those belonging to a Gender and Sexuality Alliance-style “rainbow club” until the faculty adviser left last year — Nicole and Doug’s son says he believes he was singled out for harassment because he was more outgoing.
Nicole and Doug say they repeatedly called school and district administrators, including the principal, demanding actions be taken to protect their son.
The leader of the group of girls who were among the teen’s biggest harassers was moved to a different lunch period, but she and her friends showed up during his lunch period to taunt him. Instead of addressing the problem, Nicole and Doug say administrators failed to discipline the students involved or stop the bullying.
Following the May fight, the parents pulled their son from school and filed a report with the Everett Police Department. But an investigating officer issued a report concluding that “no racially or sexually biased language was used during the incident.”
Everett police also concluded that the alleged bullying was best handled by school officials, citing a state law that discourages officers who work in schools from seeking criminal sanctions for students.
Nicole and Doug have since turned to the legal system in the hope that their lawsuit will change how the district handles such matters.
Sim Osborn, the attorney representing Nicole and Doug in their lawsuit, contends that the difficulties their son encountered are reflective of systemic problems in how the district deals with allegations of bullying and harassment.
“The school district has a duty to provide a safe learning environment,” Osborn told the Times.
Although the videos of Nicole and Doug’s son appear to have been taken down from the Evergreen Instagram page that documents fights at the school, Nicole claims there’s at least one other nearly identical fight page on Instagram. To her knowledge, the second site does not contain videos of her son’s harassment.
Still, Osborn pointed to the proliferation of such pages as evidence of the school district’s ineffectiveness when tackling the issue of bullying.
“How do they not know about a website?” he asked. “Or if they do know about it, why do they allow it to continue?”
Nicole told the Times she wants Evergreen administrators and the students involved in the harassment to be held accountable, which is why the lawsuit cites seven students, identified by their initials, as involved parties or witnesses, and references Evergreen Middle School and Everett Public Schools as the entities responsible for curbing such harassment.
The district has 60 days to respond to the lawsuit, which alleges that the lack of action to address the harassment of Nicole and Doug’s 13-year-old son is a violation of Washington State’s law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Kathy Reeves, a spokesperson for the district, told the Times, “The district will actively investigate the administrative tort claim allegations,” and declined to comment further.
New Hampshire Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has vetoed, for the third time since taking office last year, a bill seeking to bar transgender people from bathrooms and other spaces that align with their gender identity.
The "bathroom bill" seeks to carve out exceptions to New Hampshire's 2018 Law Against Discrimination, which prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The measure was signed into law by former Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.
As reported by the New Hampshire Bulletin, the bill would allow business owners to bar transgender people from restrooms or locker rooms that align with their gender identity, permit female-designated sports teams to exclude transgender women from competition, and allow jails and prisons to assign housing based on a person's sex assigned at birth.
The Daughters of the American Revolution voted against a proposal to ban transgender members during the organization's 135th Continental Congress, held June 26 at DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. The proposal would have required applicants to be "born female" to qualify for membership.
The organization limits membership to women aged 18 and older who descend from people who aided the American Revolution. An estimated five transgender women have joined DAR chapters in recent years, sparking debate over whether "daughters" should include people assigned male at birth who identify as women.
Philadelphia Police are searching for a man suspected of carrying out three shootings -- two of them fatal -- in Philadelphia's Hunting Park neighborhood over the past six weeks.
The suspect has been identified as 21-year-old Jahylin Melchur, who remains at large.
Surveillance images show Melchur wearing what Philadelphia ABC affiliate WPVI described as "distinctive clothing." In one image, he is seen wearing a red hooded jacket, black pants, and black sneakers. In another, he appears in a black jacket over a gray hoodie, black pants, and black sneakers.
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.