Victims’ Families Try Suing Parents

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Chris Seper

Plain Dealer Reporter

School bullies who get a trip to the principal’s office could also find themselves in front of a judge.

More parents whose children are beaten or bullied are suing their attackers’ families or schools, according to court filings and experts on school violence. Some want money to pay for broken noses or more-severe injuries. Others hope a lawsuit provides a sense of justice they didn’t get from criminal trials and school discipline.

Violence-prevention centers also are hearing from more parents about whether to take schools and bullies’ families to court.

“A lot of parents who take steps to a civil case believe the criminal justice system didn’t work,” said William Lassiter, manager for North Carolina’s Center for the Prevention of School Violence, one of the country’s first school-safety agencies.

The center received one or two calls a week from concerned parents before the 1999 Columbine schools shootings. Now, it gets about a half-dozen daily. About a quarter of those callers eventually discuss a lawsuit because police and school officials didn’t help them, Lassiter said.

“Somebody has got to get serious about this,” said Mike Duitch, whose family lost a suit in 2001 against the Canton city schools. Duitch’s son, Nathan, was badly beaten by a group of students during his freshman year, an incident that the Duitchs said was part of a school-sanctioned day of hazing.

No one – from the FBI to the U.S. Department of Education to anti-bullying advocates – tracks school violence lawsuits, but anecdotal evidence and interviews suggest civil courts are wading into these murky conflicts as the country focuses more on bullying.

Rachel Mertz tormented Emma Silverblatt during eighth grade at Mayfield High School, according to the Silverblatt family’s lawsuit in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Emma, who is Jewish, said Rachel would threaten her and use anti-Semitic insults, the suit states.

But Rachel, who like Emma was 13 at the time, told police that Emma called her names and regularly slapped her when they rode the school bus. Neither girl told the school, and each denies picking on the other.

Rachel confronted Emma at Emma’s second-floor locker one afternoon in March 2004, the suit said. Emma tried to move Rachel out of the way and Rachel grabbed Emma by the hair. Rachel told police that Emma started kicking her.

Then Rachel dragged Emma to the ground, punched her and banged her head against the school’s tile floor several times, calling out insults as she hit her, according to a Mayfield police report and the lawsuit.

Mayfield High suspended Rachel for five days, and she left the school soon after. Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court also ordered her to mediation, a type of court counseling meant to work through youth problems.

The Silverblatts want $50,000 for their daughter’s head and neck injuries, blurred vision and mental anguish, which required “extensive medical care,” according to the suit, which is pending. However, Emma Silverblatt’s main purpose in suing is that “the community have an opportunity to hear what happened,” said her attorney, Robert F. DiCello.

– Chris Seper