A New Jersey school district has agreed to pay $950,000 to settle a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the mother of a transgender student who died by suicide after allegedly enduring years of bullying and harassment.
Danielle Warshefski will receive $603,664.78, while the law firm that represented her will receive the remainder to cover legal costs and attorneys’ fees.
According to the lawsuit, Warshefski’s son, Myles Fitzpatrick, came out as transgender in December 2020, while Manville High School was holding classes virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Fitzpatrick returned to school for the 2021-2022 academic year, he was harassed, intimidated, and bullied because of his gender identity. According to the lawsuit, students routinely used homophobic slurs against him, misgendered him, told him he would never be male, and physically assaulted him in the locker room, bathroom, and hallways.
Warshefski also alleged that school officials and a teacher witnessed the bullying but took little or no action to stop it.
As a result, Fitzpatrick became severely depressed, engaged in self-harm, and attempted suicide before ultimately taking his own life on November 7, 2022. He was 17.
The lawsuit also alleged that the Manville School District violated state nondiscrimination laws prohibiting anti-transgender discrimination, failed to properly train its staff to address the alleged harassment and bullying, and intentionally inflicted emotional distress by failing to end the harassment or inform Fitzpatrick’s mother despite noticing evidence of self-harm.
According to MyCentralJersey.com, Fitzpatrick was granted permission in 2021 to use a restroom in the faculty lounge or nurse’s office to change for gym class due to bullying in the locker room. But the accommodation was later revoked without explanation, returning him to an environment where he was harassed by fellow students. Warshefski claims she repeatedly raised concerns with school officials, but her requests for virtual schooling or homeschooling accommodations were denied.
In an emailed statement to NJ.com, Manville Public Schools Superintendent Jamil Maroun said the district continues to dispute allegations that it allowed the bullying of Fitzpatrick to continue.
“The Manville school community was and remains devastated by Myles’ death, and our hearts go out to his family,” Maroun said in the statement. “While we respected the family’s pursuit of their legal rights, we continue to believe that we treated Myles with the utmost care and did our very best to address his mental health needs as much as a school system is able to do so. We also believe in our hearts that no act, or failure to act, on the part of Manville staff contributed to Myles’ tragic death.”
Maroun told NJ.com that the district’s insurer determined the cost of fighting the lawsuit would divert money from students and that settling was the best option. Given its obligations to students and families, he said, the district had “no other choice” but to accept the insurer’s decision.
New Hampshire Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte has signed a bill requiring teachers and other school employees to answer parents' questions about their children's health, well-being, behavior, and identity "completely and honestly."
Under the new law, educators must respond to a parent's written questions about their child within 10 business days without omitting any pertinent information. The State Board of Education must also update its educator code of ethics and code of conduct to reflect the disclosure requirements.
Teachers and staff who fail to respond to parental requests within the required time frame may face disciplinary action. The law provides two exceptions: when disclosure is prohibited by state or federal law, or when an educator has made a "good faith determination" that disclosure would put the student "at imminent risk" of abuse or neglect by a parent, according to the New Hampshire Bulletin. In the latter case, the educator must report the suspected risk to the local superintendent and deny the parent's request in writing.
Two parents in Maryland are suing Anne Arundel County Public Schools over the school system's policies affirming the gender identity of transgender students.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, was brought by the conservative, anti-LGBTQ legal organization America First Legal on behalf of John and Jane Doe. It accuses staff members at an unidentified county high school of lying to the Does about their child, Mary Doe, and her gender identity.
The Does allege that the school "socially transitioned" Mary by using a masculine name and male pronouns without informing them or obtaining their consent. They are asking school officials to use Mary's given name and female pronouns and a federal judge to declare the district's transgender-affirming policies illegal.
The U.S. Department of Education, which launched an investigation into a Colorado public school district for allegedly violating Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete on girls' sports teams, may have egg on its face after failing to identify any transgender athletes.
As first reported by Chalkbeat, the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) claimed that, as part of its investigation, it obtained athletic rosters from Jefferson County, Colorado -- home to the state's second-largest public school district -- showing that "male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls' sports teams."
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