A 13-year-old boy who died last month after he was sucker-punched by classmates had complained of bullying to an administrator at his Southern California middle school days before the alleged assault, a lawyer representing his family said on Tuesday. Dave Ring said he had filed a wrongful death claim against the Moreno Valley Unified School District on behalf of the family of Diego Stolz. The claim serves as a precursor to a wrongful death lawsuit. The filing alleges that Stolz died as a result of being bullied and asserts that the district "failed to take bullying complaints by Diego's family seriously and failed to enforce anti-bullying policies to protect its students." The filing also claims that the school district "has a long history of student altercations on its campuses."
On a Friday in mid-September, Diego Stolz’s adult cousin accompanied him to a meeting with the assistant principal at Landmark Middle School in Moreno Valley. The eighth-grader had been repeatedly targeted by bullies. The day before, one of them had punched him in the chest and threatened that more violence was coming. Stolz was scared. The assistant principal, Kamilah O’Connor, assured him that the bullies would be suspended for three days, starting Monday, and told him he could miss the remainder of the school day. But when the 13-year-old returned to classes after the weekend, the boys were still there. They confronted him around lunchtime with a pair of sucker punches that knocked him to the ground. The blows were captured on cellphone video that was posted to Facebook. Stolz never woke up. He was removed from life support nine days later. Eighth-grader's family complained of bullying days before fatal assault, legal claim states
OMG -- how sad and how absolutely irresponsible on the part of those who should have, could have done something to prevent it. Why were those boys in school when they weren't supposed to be? What a beautiful young man -- and a football player -- sounds like he was just a regular guy. We certainly don't know the whole story, but it doesn't sound like Diego was trying to be a troublemaker with those boys who attacked him. I'm glad the Wrongful Death suit is in the works. Some persons having to do with the immediate problem, those having to do with ignoring the danger, and someone not making sure those boys weren't at school that Monday have some explaining to do, IMO. School principal, dean of students, Superintendent of the School System (or whatever it is called) will have to answer some questions about this sooner or later. From the news article I read, linked above, it also sounds like Diego may not have been the first student being bullied in that school district. I wonder how tough those bullies feel tonight...
This one has got me -- we never know which cases will tug extra hard on our heartstrings and/or our sense of right and wrong and/or our anger for unspeakable hurt to those unable to fight back or ask for help... Here's another article about this sad, sad situation. Calif. Boy Told Assistant Principal About Bullying Days Before Sucker Punch That Killed Him
From the People article I posted and linked above: --------------------------------------------------------------"During a vigil for Diego, other students and their families shared similar complaints about bullying and accused the district of not taking appropriate action." -------------------------------------------------------------Will anything change with that district, its administration, parents, students, etc., now that this incident has become known by the public?
I am afraid with society today no one will take full responsibility. I see lack of action all the time. I thought maybe we had made progress in taking care of bullying. Apparently we have not. I see it in the news all the time in the Kansas City area. Parents don't want to take responsibility for their children anymore. Things are very out of control in the schools and in the work place. We don't want of offend anyone anymore. All JMO! MOO!
The moron authorities at school have a sick, twisted and borderline psychopathic ideology of "no bullying" on "both sides" meaning if you retaliate to defend yourself you get punished more than the bully. You also are often ignored when you make complaints about the bullying and told just to "ignore" it (which never solves anything) which I'm sure has gotten more psychologically and socially worse in the last years because of the drop in households with good parenting and education and financial stability. But then again, this is the country that makes excuses for police and government abusing its citizens on a daily basis so it's no surprise they push the bootlicker and dominant-weaker mentality on children and teens too.
Way back in the '60s and '70s, in my experience at least, teachers had control of their classes and nearly all students obeyed, did their homework as best they could, and a trip to the principal's office or a note to a student's parents struck fear in a student's heart. Teachers got paid crap, but as a group, they were proud of what they did, enjoyed working together and enjoyed their jobs. WTH happened? I was in a relatively small public school. My HS had about 900 students in grades 9--12. Nearly all of us graduated. Every student was urged to take the SAT whether we planned to go to college or not, i.e., the school did not care what type of SAT grades were handed out as many HS's do now. We we took the SATs very seriously (there were no SAT private studies that kids could take to help with SAT's, etc.). The better students were encouraged to take the Nat'l Merit Foundation test (it made SATs look like kindergarten, damm it was tough). WTH happened? I think there may have been less than ten "scuffles" during school hours in my 4 years there, and there were a similar small number of similar problems at sports games after school, usually on Tuesday and Friday nights -- all were male sports games at our school then. Nothing bad happened in the cafeteria that I recall, etc., etc. If there was bullying or name calling, it was very quickly quieted, and students' parents were contacted, etc. And the worst thing that a student might be caught bringing to school was a pack of cigarettes or a pocket knife. Again, WTH happened?
