Father of Bullied Boy Sues School For $600K

A father of a bullying victim is suing the local school district after his son was beaten up on school grounds last year.

Gregory Bang, who lives in Eugene, Oregon, is seeking up to $607,500 in damages for his son’s physical and emotional suffering, according to The Register-Guard.

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Last May, Bang’s son was allegedly assaulted by four older students during an unsupervised lunch period, according to the lawsuit. While on a playing field at Cal Young Middle School, one of the older students allegedly threw a football at Bang’s son’s head.  According to the Register-Guard, a fight ensued, and the four older students punched and choked the victim, resulting in bruising to his face, head, neck and torso. Eventually, other students intervened and broke up the fight.

In an email to staff and families, Kim Watry, the school principal, said the incident was “extremely unusual at our school, and it is absolutely not acceptable,” according to the paper. She also said that the school would immediately increase the adult supervision of students during lunchtime.

Neither Bang nor Eugene School District officials returned Yahoo Parenting’s request for comment.

Bang’s lawsuit, which he filed last week, claims that school officials should have known that the students “had a history of intimidating, harassing and assaulting younger students,” according to the Register-Guard, and that the school failed in its duty to keep Bang’s son safe.

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Bang is not the first parent to sue a school in regards to bullying on school grounds. In June, the family of a fourth grader in Mount Prospect, Illinois, sued the school district after their son was allegedly the victim of weekly attacks by a bully in his class. In October, the family of a 15-year-old boy named Andrew (he asked local news to not reveal his last name) in Enumclaw, Washington, sued his school district after he claimed they failed to protect him from bullies who harassed him for two years. “I was in a dark place for quite a while,” Andrew told KOMO-NEWS 4. 

"There is more litigation [relating to bullying] than when I started 30 years ago," Patrice McCarthy, deputy director and general counsel at Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, told the Connecticut Law Tribune. “There seems to be more parental challenges, more a willingness to say, ‘This must be someone else’s fault.’”

Whether the school will be held responsible in Gregory Bang’s case, only time will tell.