Jon Carmichael, age 13,, committed suicide in March 2010 as a result of being bullied and the lack of actions taken by his middle school officials. At least that this the basis of Jon Timothy and Tami Carmichael of Cleburne, Texas lawsuit for $20 million against the Joshua Independent School District. Their claim alleges that the school district ignored multiple acts of bullying including where their sun was thrown into a trash can, had his head flushed into a toilet and was stripped nude, tied up and again placed into a trash can. The lawsuit claims that a tape of the last incident was posted on YouTube but was taken down when a staff member requested it but failed to report he incident to the school.
On September 1, 2011, New Jersey instituted the toughest bully laws in the nation.
My job here is not to debate the merits of the case – a court will decide that. But in a time where there are fewer dollars available for education, schools need to be cognizant of bullying that may take place. My latest book, Dropout Prevention Field Book, has a number of practical, easy to implement practices that schools can use to identify and prevent school bullying.