Help for Georgia Bullying Victims
The Lento Law Firm is committed to helping Georgia grade school bullying victims pursue civil litigation for monetary damages to recover for bullying harms. Our attorneys stand ready to represent your student in state or federal court or administrative tribunals to ensure that your student receives the recovery and relief that your student deserves. Bullying can cause lasting and harmful impacts. You have every reason to seek skilled and experienced legal counsel to help your Georgia grade school student stop bullying and recover monetary damages for the harm that bullying has already caused.
Representing bullying victims in civil litigation against school officials requires special knowledge and refined skills beyond the competence and experience of ordinary criminal defense lawyers and local trial attorneys. Retain the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team to help your Georgia grade school student make a monetary recovery for bullying harm. Get the representation your student needs for your student's best possible outcome.
Bullying Is a National Problem
Bullying is a big, hard, persistent, national problem, according to the National Association of School Nurses and other policymakers and education experts who best know bullying's high frequency and harm. Study after study proves that bullied students suffer withdrawal from their studies, harming their academic growth. According to the Centers for Disease Control, bullied students endure significantly higher rates of school dismissal and dropout, as well as depression, anxiety, sleeplessness, and other mental, emotional, and physical effects. More may be at stake than just a student's health and welfare. Studies summarized in the National Library of Medicine closely associate student suicide with school bullying. Bullying places student lives at risk, not just their academic growth, mental health, and social development. Don't diminish the significance to your students of bullying issues.
Money Damages in Bullying Cases
Parents of bullied grade school students across the country have recovered money damages from the schools in many cases. Lawsuits against both public grade schools and private grade schools have also held schools responsible for student suicide deaths resulting from severe school bullying. Schools have suffered verdicts and judgments and voluntarily paid settlements in dozens of bullying cases. Bullying recoveries have reached not just into the tens of thousands of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars but even into seven figures, especially for bullying deaths. These cases prove that recoveries are possible with skilled and experienced representation. Let us help you evaluate and pursue your Georgia grade school student's bullying claim.
Bullying in Georgia Grade Schools
Georgia is not immune from bullying problems. Georgia ranks twenty-fourth among the fifty U.S. states on the size and scope of its bullying problem. One study reported in the National Library of Medicine found that about twenty-eight percent of Georgia grade school students suffer bullying. The study concluded that Georgia's bullying problem mirrors the national bullying problem. Another media report on state health data indicates that 64,000 Georgia middle school and high school students reported that they'd been bullied at least three times in the past month. Another media report summarizes one of the lawsuits filed against Georgia school officials for allegedly ignoring or minimizing bullying reports. Bullying remains a Georgia problem. Retain our attorneys to help your Georgia grade school student pursue monetary damages for bullying harm. Hold your student's school accountable.
Georgia's Anti-Bullying Law
Georgia's anti-bullying law, Georgia Code Section 20-2-751.4, requires school districts across the state to adopt a policy prohibiting bullying. Under the law, the state's Board of Education must develop a model anti-bullying policy that the schools may adopt. Any school adopting its own policy must ensure that the policy meets the statute's requirement and is at least as comprehensive as the Board's model policy. Georgia's anti-bullying law also requires that the school notify the parent of a bullying victim, offer a process to determine whether bullying has occurred, and remove a student who bullies to an alternative school. Georgia also has an anti-hazing law that would reach some bullying conduct. Georgia also has a statute requiring the school to adopt and implement a policy of progressive discipline for students who disrupt the school, which would reach students who bully other students. Georgia law provides you with plenty of support to seek relief for your student from bullying conduct.
Georgia's Bullying Definition
Georgia's anti-bullying law defines bullying broadly enough to reach virtually any significantly disruptive and harmful conduct. The statute provides that bullying includes “any willful attempt or threat to inflict injury on another person” when the perpetrator looks capable of doing so. Bullying also includes “any intentional display of force such as would give the victim reason to fear or expect immediate bodily harm.” Bullying also includes “any intentional written, verbal, or physical act which a reasonable person would perceive as being intended to threaten, harass, or intimidate” if that act causes substantial physical harm, substantially interferes with education, creates an intimidating environment, or substantially disrupts school operations. Common examples within Georgia's broad bullying definitions include:
- when the wrongdoer gossips or spreads rumors to ruin the victim's student's reputation and relationships;
- when the wrongdoer ridicules or demeans the victim's physical characteristics, dress, or hairstyle, discouraging school participation;
- when the wrongdoer fights, punches, slaps, pulls the hair of, shoves, kicks, or otherwise violently strikes the victim, discouraging school participation; or
- when the wrongdoer extorts or coerces the victim into relinquishing personal items, avoiding school activities, or withdrawing from other educational rights and benefits.
Georgia's Bullying Definition Does Not Include Discrimination
Because bullying usually involves disparagement of the victim's characteristics protected by anti-discrimination laws, many states define bullying to include such discriminatory disparagement. Legislatures protect attributes and traits that wrongdoers use to unlawfully discriminate, on which bullies also pick. But Georgia does not join the many other states defining bullying to include conduct directed at the victim's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or other protected characteristics. That doesn't mean that bullies are free to discriminate. Indeed, the opposite is true: in Georgia, a bully remains a bully whether or not the bully picks on protected characteristics.
Georgia's Bullying Definition Includes Cyberbullying
Georgia is among the many states that expressly prohibit cyberbullying, meaning bullying by electronic communication. In Georgia, cyberbullying can include “any transfer of signs, signals, writings, images, sounds, data or intelligence of any nature transmitted in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photo electronic or photo optical system.” But Georgia includes cyberbullying within its anti-bullying law's definition only if
“the electronic communication (1) is directed specifically at students or school personnel, (2) is maliciously intended for the purpose of threatening the safety of those specified or substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school, and (3) creates a reasonable fear of harm to the students' or school personnel's person or property or has a high likelihood of succeeding in that purpose.”
Georgia Civil Liability Compensating Bullying Victims
Georgia's anti-bullying law does not on its own create a private right of action for money damages from bullying harm. You must look to other laws for that right of recovery, although Georgia's anti-bullying law may help your student establish the legal elements of duty and its breach when the school or its officials ignore their obligations under the anti-bullying law. Our attorneys can help you evaluate your student's legal rights and theories to pursue civil litigation for monetary damages from bullying harm.
Georgia Governmental Liability Law and Bullying Claimants
States typically claim some degree of governmental immunity based on the traditional doctrine that the sovereign is immune from suits against the sovereign in the sovereign's courts. Immunity means you cannot sue. Georgia waives immunity to state offices and officers under Georgia Code Section 50-21-23. But cases have held that the waiver extends only to state government and not local government, including local public schools. Other Georgia law preserves immunity for local schools and districts, and their teachers and other employees, especially when the question comes to discretion and claims of negligence for failing to properly exercise that discretion. Some authority exists that proof of willful and wanton misconduct, or proof that the duty was only ministerial rather than discretionary, may give rise to a school liability claim in certain special situations. Governmental immunity and liability are close, complex, and technical questions that often depend on the specific facts and circumstances of a case. Let our attorneys help you determine if your student has a right to recover monetary damages from the school for bullying harm.
Georgia Negligence Law and Bullying Victims
If, in the special case, your student's bullying claim falls within an exception to governmental immunity, your student must still prove the underlying legal theory of recovery. Negligence would generally be that theory, although again, your student may also have to prove a special wrong, special duty, special relationship, or ministerial act. A Georgia negligence claim involves proving that school officials owed your student the duty to exercise reasonable care to prevent bullying but failed to reasonably monitor, supervise, investigate, or protect, causing your student the bullying harm. Let our attorneys evaluate your student's potential negligence claim under Georgia law.
Other Georgia Tort Law and Bullying Victims
Like other states, Georgia recognizes other forms of tort claims in addition to negligence claims. Defamation in either its written libel or oral slander form, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and assault and battery are potential intentional tort claims. But those claims generally require proof of the intent to harm, which would ordinarily apply only to the student bully, not to the teacher or other school official who carelessly fails to prevent the bullying. Schools and other employers generally do not have vicarious liability for the intentional torts of others, even of their employees. These other intentional tort theories may sustain claims against the bullies but are not likely against the school or its employees.
Georgia's Parental Liability Law and Bullying Victims
Bullying victims may also rely on Georgia's parental liability statute authorizing recovery of up to $10,000 from the parents of the student who commits bullying. While the parental liability statute doesn't specifically mention bullying, its reference to the child's “willful or malicious acts” very likely would cover instances of bullying. Thus, if your student can identify the student perpetrator or perpetrators, your student may recover up to the statutory amount from the bully's parents on one or more of the above intentional tort theories and the parental liability statute. The bullying student may also be liable under those theories but is likely uncollectible.
Georgia Compensation Theories for Private School Bullying
Private schools and their teachers and staff members do not have the protection of Georgia governmental immunity. Private schools and their employees are not governmental actors. Your student may thus have a full right of recovery for negligence on the part of the school and school officials if your student attended a private school. Your student may also have a breach of contract claim against the private school for bullying harm if the school promised but failed to provide security against bullying.
Federal Laws Compensating for Bullying Harm
Given the substantial questions of Georgia's governmental immunity for public schools and their teachers and other officials, federal law may be your student's better theory of money damages recovery for bullying harm. State governmental immunity would generally not bar a federal law claim against the school, given the supremacy of federal law over state law. But federal money damages claims generally require their own special proofs and pleading to satisfy the complex federal laws in this area. Let our attorneys help you evaluate your student's federal law claims.
Section 1983 Substantive Due Process Claims
The federal statute 42 USC Section 1983 may be your student's best avenue for recovery. Section 1983 provides a private right of action for monetary damages against public agencies and officials who deprive the claimant of constitutional rights under the color of state law. Your student has constitutional due process and equal protection rights when in public school. The school's violation of those rights in a bullying setting may provide your student with a Section 1983 damages claim for a substantial monetary recovery. Section 1983 cases have proceeded when able to prove a state-created danger, Jones v. Reynolds, 438 F.3d 685, 690 (6th Cir. 2006), special duty and relationship, Soper v. Hoben, 195 F.3d 845, 852 (6th Cir. 1999), or act shocking the conscience, Range v. Douglas, 763 F.3d 573, 588 (6th Cir. 2014). Our attorneys can help you evaluate your student's potential Section 1983 claim.
Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws and Bullying Compensation
Your student may alternatively have a federal law claim if the bullying and the school's response to the bullying together constituted unlawful discriminatory conduct. Bullies discriminate and harass based on protected characteristics like race, religion, sex, and disability. When schools fail to prevent and address discrimination-based bullying, they may violate their obligations under federal school anti-discrimination laws. The following federal laws protect against discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual violence, disability, and related categories, for which Section 1983 and other laws may provide a corollary money damages action: the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act; Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973; Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act; Title IV or Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
Georgia Bullying Defendants
When you consider pursuing a monetary recovery for your student, you must determine the appropriate defendants. Suing the school and school district is the common strategy for several reasons. One, the schools have Georgia's statutory responsibility to prevent and address bullying. Teachers and other school officials may also bear the statutory responsibility, but the school has the primary obligation. Two, the school and district have the financial resources to pay judgments and settlements. A teacher or other school staff member may not, although in many cases, the school will indemnify (pay the damages for) the teacher or other staff member. Three, judges and juries may be more willing to hold the public entity's responsibility rather than burdening the individual official with liability. And four, the law may favor a claim against the school over a claim against the school official, whom immunity or qualified immunity may protect.
Damages for Georgia Bullying Victims
When you consider pursuing a monetary damages claim on your student's behalf for bullying harm, you may wonder what Georgia law will compensate if your student has a viable liability theory. Georgia civil rights and personal injury laws generally provide first for compensatory damages. Those damages attempt to make your student whole, as far as possible. Compensatory damages would include any medical or counseling expenses your student incurred due to bullying, any wage loss or lost earning capacity your student suffered, your student's damaged, stolen, or destroyed personal property, and any other provable out-of-pocket expense.
Georgia law also provides for recovery of non-economic loss, including pain, suffering, lost enjoyment of life, mental and emotional distress, humiliation, embarrassment, fear, fright, and shock. Georgia law also authorizes punitive damages to punish the defendant but only in cases where the claimant can prove the defendant's “willful misconduct, malice, fraud, wantonness, oppression, or that entire want of care which would raise the presumption of conscious indifference to consequences.” Georgia law also requires that three-quarters of any punitive damage award go to the state rather than the claimant.
Pursuing a Georgia Civil Action for Bullying
Our Education Law Team can help you evaluate and pursue your student's Georgia school bullying claim. We can investigate the claim to identify and acquire admissible evidence, choose the best court or tribunal, and prepare and file the complaint. We know how to mediate and negotiate for early voluntary settlement to avoid the time and delay of extended litigation. If your student's case does not settle early, we can navigate your student's case through discovery and pretrial motions to trial if necessary. Our attorneys have strong trial skills to prove your student's case while challenging the credibility of the school's defense. Our attorneys can help enforce the money judgment and defend the judgment against the school's appeals. Your student needs qualified legal representation to pursue a Georgia school bullying claim. Our attorneys can provide it.
Defending Disciplinary Charges Against Bullying Victims
Lawmakers, policymakers, and education experts all know that bullied students often act out in serious ways. Bullied students may fight in self-defense, appear to disrupt school operations and disrespect teachers, skip class or show up late, and fail to progress academically. Any of those reactions may lead to misconduct charges against the student victim instead of or in addition to misconduct charges against the bullying student. It is not at all unusual for a bullying victim to face school discipline, especially when the school fails or refuses to investigate, prevent, and redress the bullying. Our attorneys know how to defend your student against disciplinary charges while advocating your student's claim for monetary damages for bullying harm. Let us help defend your student against disciplinary charges as part of our services pursuing your student's money damages case.
Avoiding Georgia School Bullying
Your student may remain vulnerable to bullying even as you learn more about your student's rights and take your first steps to help your student overcome the bullying. Be sure that your student understands not to engage in the same kind of bullying conduct that your student has suffered. Doing so could result in disciplinary charges and loss of the damages case. Be sure your student reports bullying immediately to you and to the school. If your student hesitates because of a fear of the bully's retaliation, be sure your student understands that the school must protect your student from retaliation and that its failure or refusal to do so improves your student's liability theory and damages claim, as hard as those circumstances may be. Help your student avoid further bullying by following these steps and retaining us to help.
Representation for Georgia Bullying Victims
The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team is here to represent your Georgia grade school student in a civil action for monetary damages for bullying harm. Our attorneys have helped hundreds of students nationwide successfully address bullying and other school conduct issues. Call 888.535.3686 now or chat with us for the skilled services and experienced representation your Georgia student needs.
