It's the kind of situation every parent dreads – your child comes home from school and tells how they were bullied that day or, worse, how they've been repeatedly bullied over and over again. You contact the school and are assured that something will be done about it . . . but nothing seems to happen, and the bullying continues. As the parent of a K-12 student in Kansas, what can or should you do to help your child? The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team can help you decide. Our experienced attorneys understand how difficult these kinds of situations are, and we are ready to work with you to help protect your child. Contact us today at 888.535.3686 or use our contact form to set up a consultation.
The Problem of Bullying in Kansas Schools
Kansas legislators understood the need to have protections in place that address the problem of bullying in schools when they passed laws that require local school districts to implement anti-bullying policies that apply to students, staff members, and parents. Unfortunately, bullying still happens in Kansas schools, with terrible effects on some students. The fact that schools may have anti-bullying policies in place doesn't necessarily mean that the schools adequately respond to reports of bullying or take effective steps to stop it from happening.
Bullied students don't do as well in school as other students. They tend to miss more class days and are more likely to quit school as soon as they're legally able. Students who suffer bullying can develop mental as well as physical health problems. And as noted in the news reports linked above, it's not unusual for bullied students to attempt or commit suicide.
The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team has put together this summary of Kansas anti-bullying laws and policies to help parents understand what they can do to help stop bullying and what their child's school should be doing when bullying happens in the school setting. We also discuss what your options are in terms of court actions when your child's school fails to put a stop to bullying. Contact us if you have questions about how the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team can help.
Kansas Anti-Bullying Laws
Kansas requires school districts to have policies in place “to prohibit bullying” by students, staff members, and parents. The policies must apply to incidents that occur “on or while utilizing school property, in a school vehicle, or at a school-sponsored activity or event.” These plans must also “address bullying” and must include “training and education for staff members and students.” Kansas also requires its state board of education to designate “a period of time each school year” to “Increasing attention to the prevention of bullying or harassment of students with disabilities.”
Note that parents are not specifically required to be involved in a school district's anti-bullying procedures. In particular, there is no specific requirement that schools implement policies requiring parents to be notified when their child has been bullied or when their child has bullied someone else. That said, each school district is free to adopt “additional policies relating to bullying,” so it's important to check your district's anti-bullying policy to see exactly what its terms are. While Kansas law also doesn't require school boards to publish their anti-bullying policies, a number of school districts (such as Wichita's) do so.
Kansas's Bullying Definition
The Kansas anti-bullying statute includes a broad definition of “bullying.” Bullying includes “written, verbal, electronic or physical” acts or threats that create an “intimidating, threatening or abusive educational environment” that could harm another either physically or mentally, damage another's property, or place another in “reasonable fear of harm.”
There are many types of behavior that could qualify as bullying under the Kansas definition. For example:
- Making threats to physically harm another student or actually physically harming them;
- Taunting, harassing, or repeatedly bothering a student, in particular by focusing on the student's sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, physical characteristics, or disabilities;
- Taking or damaging a student's property;
- Circulating false information about a student that would cause others to view the student in a negative light.
Kansas Laws Protecting Bullying Victims
Kansas doesn't have a law that specifically creates a special remedy for bullying victims. If your child is harmed by bullying, the remedy lies with more traditional tort claims such as negligence, if against the school or school district, or personal injury based on assault if against the bully (though keep in mind that when the bully is a minor, the lawsuit will normally be filed against the parents).
Lawsuits filed against a school district or a school need to keep in mind the Kansas Tort Claims Act, which sets forth certain limitations on the types of claims that can be brought against governmental entities such as public schools and school districts. It also limits the maximum amount of damages that can be awarded against a governmental entity to $500,000 for claims that arise out of a “single occurrence or accident.”
There is a prerequisite to filing a lawsuit against a school district. You must first present the district with a notice of the claim that you intend to bring against the district. The notice of claim is a separate step that must be completed before a lawsuit can be filed, and it has its own requirements in terms of what it includes and who it serves.
The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team can make sure that you comply with the notice requirements that apply in cases where a school district is being sued and will also take the requirements of the Tort Claims Act into account when preparing the complaint.
Bringing a Lawsuit Against a School or School District on Behalf of a Bullying Victim
As noted above, if your child's school has failed to protect them against bullying after school officials have been made aware that the bullying is taking place, you may be able to sue the school or the school district for negligence. The procedures that must be followed to bring the suit will differ depending on whether the lawsuit is against a private school or a public school. While in a bullying case, you will most likely want to bring such a lawsuit as soon as possible – to help put a stop to the bullying – you generally need to do so within two years of when your child was injured by the bullying.
It's not always easy to determine when a claim arises for the purpose of starting the clock running on this two-year period. The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team can help you determine when your time to sue will expire and can help you make sure you bring your claim within that period.
Potential Defendants for Kansas Bullying Liability
While the school or school district may seem to be the obvious defendant in a school bullying case, sometimes it makes sense to name key individuals who you believe are responsible for the negligent acts that allowed the bullying to continue. In most cases, these individual defendants will be immune from ultimate liability if they were acting within the scope of their duties. But where the bullying is coming from a school employee such as a teacher or administrator, there may be an argument that immunity should not apply – since bullying students is not part of any school employee's job description.
Who to include as a defendant in a lawsuit is a tactical matter. The experienced attorneys from the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team can help you decide who the defendants will be in any lawsuit you may bring as a consequence of your child being bullied at school.
Kansas Personal Injury Laws Protecting Bullying Victims
Kansas law doesn't create any special causes of action for bullying victims. Lawsuits seeking to recover for a school's failure to protect a student from bullying typically rely on traditional tort theories such as negligence. The idea in these cases is that the school acted negligently when it failed to take steps to enforce its own anti-bullying policies, and the bullied student suffered one or more injuries – physical and mental or both, as the case may be – as a result.
In cases where the bully (or bully's parents) are sued for the direct acts of bullying, the claims that can be brought include assault, battery, defamation (where false information was spread about the bullied child), invasion of privacy (where intimate photos were shared without the child's consent), and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
In addition to tort-based claims against a school, school district, or bully, in certain limited circumstances, you may also be able to file claims based on federal statutes. These are discussed below.
Kansas Private School Liability to Bullying Victims
While not bound by the same laws as public schools, if a private school in Kansas has an anti-bullying policy and repeatedly fails to enforce it, you may be able to sue the school for its negligence. Private schools don't need to be served with the advance notice that public schools do. The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team will work to collect the relevant information needed to prepare and serve a compelling complaint against private schools – including individual teachers or administrators – who fail to follow their own anti-bullying policies.
Federal Anti-Bullying Laws Supporting Civil Liability
Where bullying focuses on certain aspects of the bullied student – such as their sex, race, religion, national origin, or disability – federal law may provide what is called a “private right of action” that allows someone injured when the law is violated to sue the person who committed the act. Some of the key federal laws that provide this private right of action that may come into play in bullying situations include the following:
- Section 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This section allows any person, including, of course, a student who has had their civil rights violated by a government employee, such as a public school teacher or school administrator, to sue for that violation. The rights covered include “any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws.”
- Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This creates a private right of action where the actions of the bully against the bullied student are based on the “race, color, religion, sex or national origin” of the bullied student.
- Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. This affects a wide range of entities, including school districts and private schools – that receive federal funding. These entities are prohibited from discriminating against any individual and can affect schools in situations where the school fails to take steps to stop one student from bullying another student in a discriminatory way.
- Title IX of the Civil Rights Restoration Act of 1987. This well-known law goes beyond simply requiring colleges to fund women's sports on par with men's. More broadly, Title IX guarantees students “an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex.” When a school allows a bully to sexually harass another student, it may support a claim based on the school's violation of Title IX.
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. This law provides protection for students with disabilities; in particular, it protects them from being discriminated against by schools that receive federal funding. When a school allows a disabled student to be bullied and the focus of the bullying is on the student's disability, this law may provide a civil remedy.
- Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This requires schools to provide “reasonable accommodation” to students who have disabilities and prohibits them from discriminating against disabled students. When schools fail to provide these accommodations, and as a result, disabled students are placed in situations where they are more likely to be singled out for bullying, a civil claim based on Title II of the ADA may be appropriate.
- The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. This law requires schools to offer disabled students a “free appropriate public education” that includes services “designed to meet their unique needs.” A school that doesn't meet its IDEA obligations and places disabled students in learning situations that encourage bullying, the school may be sued under this law.
Note that each of these federal laws requires that there be something else besides bullying. Typically, the bullying must focus on some kind of protected aspect of the bullied student or must result because the school failed to provide the student with accommodations or learning opportunities required by law. These kinds of claims can be difficult to assert. The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team understands the complexities of these statutes and can help you decide whether one or more of them may be effective in a case where your child has been bullied.
Compensation for Bullying Victims in Kansas Schools
Damages for bullying can include compensatory damages that are designed to cover the costs associated with medical and psychological treatment, as well as the cost of damaged, ruined, or stolen goods. Sometimes, these damages will include an amount to cover the anticipated costs of future medical, rehabilitation, or counseling services.
In addition, it may be possible to collect non-economic damages for injuries such as pain and suffering, emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation, and similar types of mental damage. While it can be hard to be precise about these types of damage amounts, they often exceed the amount of the compensatory damages.
Note, though, that there is a damages cap in cases where a public school district is sued, namely, $500,000 for claims that arise out of a “single occurrence or accident.”
Pre-Suit Steps to Take with Your Kansas School When Your Child is Bullied
The best resolution to any bullying situation is one that happens quickly, without a lawsuit having to be filed. For that reason, it's important to bring bullying to the attention of your child's school as soon as you learn it's been happening. Give the school a chance to enforce its own anti-bullying policies before you decide to bring suit for them failing to do so.
When you notify the school about a bullying incident or series of incidents, make a record of your conversation or save your email to the school. If you have a verbal conversation, write down who it was with, when it happened, and summarize what was said. If the communication is by email, save the email and any follow-up correspondence. This information can be quite helpful in cases where the school doesn't effectively enforce its own anti-bullying policies. And it does no harm in the case where the school does put a stop to the bullying.
Pursuing a Kansas Civil Action on Behalf of a Bullying Victim
In the truly unfortunate situation where a school has been repeatedly notified that bullying is taking place and the school fails to enforce its own policies to put a stop to it, you may need to file a lawsuit. The lawsuit will have two purposes: one, to force the school to take the matter very seriously and hopefully correct its failures, and two, to compensate your child for the injuries and damage your child has suffered as a result of the school's negligence.
After serving any required notice of claim, the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team will prepare a detailed complaint that it will file with the appropriate court and serve on the school or school district that is named as the defendant. Any individual defendants will also be served. That will commence the lawsuit. After that, you can typically expect the following steps to occur:
- The defendants will file their answer to the complaint. In some cases, the defendants may first file a motion seeking to dismiss the complaint; in those cases, the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team will oppose the motion.
- A period of discovery will follow, where both sides exchange relevant documents and depose potential witnesses.
- There will typically be one or more settlement discussions, either at the initiative of one of the parties or at the judge's suggestion. As a practical matter, most cases headed for trial will be settled beforehand.
- When there is no settlement, the case will proceed to trial. Both sides will present evidence and will question and cross-examine witnesses.
- If you are awarded damages, the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team will help make sure they're collected. If an appeal is filed after the verdict, our attorneys can represent you in connection with that proceeding as well.
Defending Disciplinary Charges Against a Bullying Victim
In our experience, it's not unusual for a bullying victim to try to defend themselves and find themselves being disciplined by their school for doing so. As unjust as it may seem, it happens – busy school administrators don't always have the time to investigate altercations between students fully. The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team has years of experience helping students all over the country defend themselves in school disciplinary proceedings. Our attorneys understand the disciplinary rules and procedures that apply in these situations, and we will work vigorously on behalf of your child to protect their rights and their good name.
Helping Your Student Avoid Kansas School Bullying
When your child opens up to you about being bullied at school, it's important to take it seriously and let your child know that you support them. Report the bullying to the school so that the school has a chance to apply its own anti-bullying policies, but also make sure that your child knows you understand how hard this must be for them. If you can show your child that you're on their side, they're going to be much more likely to share any future bullying incidents with you, and it's going to help them tremendously to know that you have their back.
Premier Representation for Kansas Bullying Victims
Despite laws designed to discourage bullying, it still regularly takes place in schools all across Kansas. The Lento Law Firm Educational Law Team can help you and your child remedy situations where their school has failed to apply its own anti-bullying policies and your child is being harmed as a result. Our experienced attorneys understand the laws and procedures that apply in Kansas, and we're ready to help you protect your child from future bullying incidents.
Don't delay – where your child's school won't act, sometimes you have to be the one to do what it takes to protect your child from bullying. Call the Lento Law Firm Education Law Team today at 888.535.3686, or use our contact form to set up a consultation. We are here to listen and to help!
