Parents of bullied son sue Sherwood School District
Suit claims attacker had history of violence but was protected because he was an athlete
By Ray Pitz
The Times, Aug 24, 2011, Updated Aug 24, 2011
The parents of a 16-year-old Sherwood High School student are suing the Sherwood School District in federal court alleging that their son was bullied, harassed and assaulted by another student two years ago.
The suit, filed Aug. 19 in Portland's U.S. District Court, claims the district failed to take appropriate steps to prevent what eventually resulted in â??an unprovoked and brutal physical attack on Oct. 29, 2009, on the premises of the Sherwood High School.â?
The lawsuit seeks $275,000 in damages. It also names as defendants former Superintendent Dan Jamison, former Principal Michelle DeBoard, former Assistant Principal Matthew Boring and school counselor Melissa Goff, along with the parents of the youth accused of the assault.
According to the lawsuit the victim, who was 14 at the time, accidentally bumped into a sophomore student in September 2009. The younger classmate claims he apologized, but the sophomore began taunting him with frequent profanities. (The students are only identified by their initials throughout the document.)
On Oct. 29, the suit says a crowd of students gathered to watch as the sophomore attacked (him) â??without provocation or justification, with a right-handed closed fist punch to (the younger studentâ??s) face, the force of which knocked (his) front tooth...out of his mouth and broke his nose.â? The assailant allegedly followed by knocking the younger boy down with a â??leg sweepâ? takedown.
As a result, the younger boy had to have dental surgery and was unable to â??compete in basketball tryouts, missed time from school, suffered diminished grade performance and has been forced to the recognition that his school environment is not safe and that he is in constant peril of imminent future harm,â? according to the lawsuit.
It further alleges that the older student had prior issues with â??bullying, intimidations and hyper-aggressive actsâ? that the district knew about, and that the sophomore was an athlete who was protected by the district because he was part of a team headed to a state championship.
The plaintiffâ??s attorney, Steven M. McCarthy of Independence, said Monday that the older student had been a problem and the school district knew about it.
â??The problem really is the culture,â? McCarthy said.
Superintendent Heather Cordie, who wasnâ??t with the district at the time of the incident, said the lawsuit had been given to the school districtâ??s attorneys and that the district canâ??t comment on ongoing litigation.
I've also copied and pasted one of the readers' comments below. The sentiments expressed by "Walt" are disturbing, but not surprising.
Notice he has no problem with "jock" bullies being protected from the consequences of their misdeeds. He doesn't even address the issue of inequity. He's probably been a bully himself. (No, I'm not saying that most school athletes are bullies; so, please let's not go there. But I do think that more than a few of them do have certain attitudes that easily could result in bullying under the right circumstances.) Yes, I do recognize there are individual athletes and coaches who are morally opposed to bullying of anyone; but they don't seem to be representative of the sports culture. In fact, they seem to be dissidents from the norm. I honor them, but I refuse to believe they're typical. As far as I'm concerned, those who claim they are typical are not being honest. Seems to me that many sports fans have an "athletes can do no wrong," "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil" attitude. In fact, I've seen this attitude manifested many times over a period of decades. The sports culture condones bullying, just as "Walt" does. This is one of the reasons why I will never become a sports fan.Dominant/passive relationships are as fundamental to the human tribe as sex and eating. There is no number of law suits that will ever stop dominant people from dominating. Sorry 'bout that. I have been a successful athlete for about 54 years, counting golf, and do not know one single fellow athlete that has not been dominated at some point. That dominance is typically referred to as bullying, intimidation or harassment. Baloney. It is human nature and it is instinctive. You cannot fix it with laws, suits, rules or regulations.
