To file a lawsuit against a public entity, a person must first file a tort claim notice.
The parent of a Woodcliff Lake public school student has sued the district, saying his child has anxiety and fears about attending school, after accusing officials of making critical errors when they erroneously found that his son had hurled a discriminatory comment at another student.
The Woodcliff Lake parent says his and his family's reputation as new immigrants to the country has been destroyed after the Bergen County district and its Board of Education determined that their elementary-school-age son engaged in an act of harassment, intimidation and bullying, also known as HIB, against another student, says the lawsuit, filed in state Superior Court in Bergen County.
After the March incident, which allegedly involved an embarrassing interaction with a teacher that left the boy "scared," and rumors about the incident being spread by students, the boy's and his family's sense of peace and stability has been "profoundly disrupted," the suit says.
The family is seeking unspecified damages for emotional distress, reputational harm and the educational impact on their son. The family has asked the court to invalidate the HIB decision and remove it from the boy's educational record and wants a judge to order the district to implement procedural safeguards and confidentiality for future HIB investigations.
Lauren Barbelet, the district superintendent, and Stephen Fogarty, the board attorney, did not respond to requests for comment.
Did school improperly handle HIB investigation?
On March 1, the boy was in gym class at Dorchester Elementary School when he was accused of calling a classmate "autistic," which school officials later said was perceived by the classmate as a negative comment about his intellectual and developmental characteristics, the suit says. The classmate told the school's anti-bullying specialist that he and the boy were playing basketball and that the boy told him, "You're weird" and "You're autistic," causing the classmate to walk away in tears.
The boy, in his own statements submitted in court records, denied using the word "autistic," which is a term used for individuals with a complex neurodevelopmental condition, and said he did not even know what the word meant. The boys had an argument in the class over who was better at basketball, and the boy admitted he called his classmate "dumb," the suit says. The classmate cried and accused the boy of calling him autistic in front of other students, the boy said in his statement.
The family cites several discrepancies in the way the school handled the case, including the HIB report, which the family says did not include actual statements from witnesses to the incident and instead gave interpretations from school staff members of what they were told. The family also contends that the "main reporter" of the incident was a paraprofessional who did not hear the interaction between the boys, says the school failed at maintaining confidentiality through the investigation, and states that the gym teacher should not have been included as a witness because he did not hear the interaction.
One student reported she only heard the boy use the word "dumb," another student said they heard the word "autistic" and a third student did not remember what the boy said.
When the school's principal called the boy's mother, the mother said she had heard her son use the word "dumb" before, but did not believe her son knew the word "autistic." She also said that in prior months, she had asked the school to look into an incident in which another boy had called her son a defamatory word and she was disappointed that the school declined to investigate. The school, in response, said an alleged "offender" could not be identified. She said the latest incident was being investigated only because her son is Muslim, the report noted.
The son, in his own statement, was adamant he did not use the word "autistic," but said he was "screamed" at by the gym teacher and was suppressed when he tried to tell his side of the story, instead being coerced into admitting he had said the word because he was fearful of his teacher. The school allegedly denied repeated requests by the family to review or obtain video recordings showing the interaction between the boy and his physical education teacher.
Under the state Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act and board policy, in order to validate an HIB finding, the individual must be found to have substantially interfered with the alleged victim's rights or have caused the individual emotional harm. The family says the HIB report concluded that the classmate's learning at the school was "significantly disrupted," and the family questioned how it was "measured," since there were no reports to show evidence of such.
Despite the family's appeal, the school affirmed its decision in May and found "substantial credible evidence" that supported the HIB finding. The school determined that hearsay evidence was "entirely appropriate" and that no procedural or constitutional rights violations occurred.
The boy's case will be placed in his student record, but he was not disciplined for his actions, the school said. The boy was required to attend after-school sessions to help him better understand autism, share his feelings about school and his relationships with his peers, and learn how to resolve conflicts and the need to be sensitive to words and phrases used to describe others, according to the school's response letter.