Pennsylvania Bullying Victim Representation
Your Pennsylvania grade school student should not have to endure bullying. Grade school is a precious time for important social, emotional, and physical development and the acquisition of foundational academic skills. Bullying interferes with that development and achievement. You have every right and reason to oppose and report bullying and to seek compensation for your student's bullying harm. Pennsylvania and federal laws support you in that parental responsibility and interest. Your student needs and deserves the services of skilled and experienced legal representatives when enforcing anti-bullying rights and recovering money damages in a civil action for bullying harm.
The LLF Law Firm's premier Education Law Team is available across Pennsylvania to help your grade school student address and correct bullying, including making a monetary recovery for bullying harm. Don't proceed without the representation your student needs for the best possible outcome. Retain us to help you get the relief and damages your student deserves.
Bullying as a National Problem
Bullying isn't just a Pennsylvania problem. The National Association of School Nurses reports that school bullying is a persistent national problem. School nurses, parents, policymakers, education experts, and others also report that bullying seriously impacts students. Bullied students often withdraw from studies to avoid standing out, significantly decreasing their academic growth and performance. The Centers for Disease Control reports that students suffering from bullying face increased depression, academic failure, and school dismissal or dropout rates. The National Library of Medicine even reports that student suicides closely correlate with school bullying. And no wonder, given how important peer relationships are to grade school students and their mental health and social development.
Monetary Compensation in Bullying Cases
Money damages recoveries for bullying harms are increasingly common across the nation. Parents have even successfully sued public grade schools and private grade schools for student suicide deaths following severe bullying at school. Parents are increasingly holding schools accountable for bullying harm. One national database of verdicts, judgments, and settlements in school bullying cases shows recoveries of tens of thousands of dollars or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in multiple Pennsylvania cases and recoveries into seven figures in other states, especially for bullying causing student death. The laws providing for monetary compensation for bullying harm are technical and complex, but recoveries are possible in many cases with skilled and experienced representation.
Bullying in Pennsylvania Grade Schools
Bullying is also a serious problem in Pennsylvania schools. One survey ranks Pennsylvania as having the twenty-first biggest problem with bullying among the fifty U.S. states. Another survey shows high frequencies of virtually all forms of bullying, from elementary school through middle school and into high school. The survey found “a substantial level of bullying victimization across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” particularly at the elementary and middle school levels. As many as 180,000 Pennsylvania grade school students may face bullying every week. Our attorneys are available in Pennsylvania to help your student pursue monetary damages and other relief from bullying incidents.
Pennsylvania Anti-Bullying Laws
Unfortunately, Pennsylvania's legislature has not responded with the same commitment as other states in outlawing school bullying. Pennsylvania is among only three of the fifty U.S. states that do not have a law expressly prohibiting bullying. Pennsylvania law does not require the school to provide student support relating to bullying or to engage parents promptly with respect to bullying incidents involving their student. A contrast of other state laws places Pennsylvania squarely in the small minority of states lacking these legal measures.
Pennsylvania's legislature has, though, required all public schools in the state to adopt policies defining, prohibiting, and addressing bullying. The policy's definition of bullying must at least encompass the definition stated in the legislation, although Pennsylvania schools may adopt broader anti-bullying policies. Pennsylvania's legislature has also enacted significantly stronger laws prohibiting hazing. Those anti-hazing laws do not mention bullying but may reach much bullying conduct. Let our attorneys help you invoke these Pennsylvania laws to fight against bullying toward your student.
Pennsylvania's Bullying Definition
Pennsylvania defines bullying broadly to reach any “intentional electronic, written, verbal or physical act or a series of acts” that a student directs at another student in a school setting “that is severe, persistent or pervasive” and “substantially interfering” with education, “creating a threatening environment,” or “substantially disrupting the orderly operation of the school.” According to the statute, a school setting includes not just the school building and grounds but school vehicles, school bus stops, and “any activity sponsored, supervised or sanctioned by the school.” Common examples of bullying that would likely fall within Pennsylvania's definition include:
- when a student gossips or spreads rumors among other students while at school or a school function to ruin another student's school reputation and relationships;
- when a student harasses, intimidates, ridicules, and demeans another student's physical appearance, including dress, hairstyle, or demeanor, in ways that discourage the student's school participation;
- when a student commits violence against another student, like fighting, punching, slapping, pulling hair, shoving, tripping, and kicking, in ways that discourage the student's school participation and
- when a student coerces another student into giving up personal property, withdrawing from school activities, or relinquishing other educational rights and interests.
Pennsylvania's Bullying Definition Does Not Include Discrimination
Bullying typically includes discriminatory harassment. A vast majority of U.S. states specifically address and prohibit bullying based on protected categories and characteristics like race, color, national origin, religion, sex, and disability. Pennsylvania is not among those states. Other laws, both Pennsylvania law and federal law, address school discrimination, but Pennsylvania does not include anti-discrimination provisions in its limited anti-bullying law.
Cyberbullying Falls Within the Pennsylvania Definition of Bullying
By including intentional “electronic” acts in its bullying definition, Pennsylvania law does include cyberbullying in its anti-bullying provision. Pennsylvania prosecutors could also charge cyberbullying as a harassment crime under 18 Pennsylvania Code Section 2709. But unlike many other states, Pennsylvania does not specifically mention “cyberbullying” or further define cyberbullying in its anti-bullying law. You have sufficient authority in the state's limited anti-bullying law to demand that your student's school stop cyberbullying and to include cyberbullying in your request for monetary damages and other relief.
Pennsylvania Civil Liability Compensating Bullying Victims
Pennsylvania's anti-bullying law does not, on its face, create a private right of action for monetary damages for a bullying victim. If you sue for monetary damages for your student's bullying harm, you must do so under other Pennsylvania law. One of those available laws is the state's Human Relations Act. Philadelphia's public schools settled the case of Wible v. School District of Philadelphia, April Term 2015, No. 3169 (Phila. Com. Pl. Dec. 17, 2018), brought under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act. The Act does not expressly prohibit bullying but instead prohibits discrimination based on race, color, age, sex, ancestry, national origin, religion, family status, disability, and support or service animals for a disability. If your student's bullying included demeaning references to one or more of these protected characteristics, your student's claim may rely on the Human Relations Act. Let our attorneys help you determine your student's available legal theories for monetary recovery in civil litigation over bullying harm.
Pennsylvania Governmental Liability Law and Bullying Claimants
States generally claim some form of governmental immunity for public schools and school employees, among other public agencies and officials. Pennsylvania is among those states granting immunity to local schools and school employees under Section 8541 of the Pennsylvania Political Subdivision Torts Claim Act and related law. The Act does provide exceptions to immunity, where parents may be able to hold a school district and its employees liable for certain harm to their child. However, the exceptions in the Act do not squarely address bullying. Depending on the facts of your student's case, your student's recourse may be under other Pennsylvania or federal law, like the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act.
Pennsylvania Negligence Law and Bullying Victims
If your student's bullying claim fell within an exception to governmental immunity, which is unlikely or at least uncertain, then your student would still have to prove the underlying legal theory of recovery. That theory would most likely be the negligence of school officials. Pennsylvania tort law recognizes a negligence claim when the defendant owed a duty to the injured plaintiff but breached that duty by the failure of ordinary and reasonable care, causing the plaintiff injury. But for governmental immunity, your student may be able to show that school officials were negligent in failing to monitor, supervise, investigate, discipline, and protect against bullying. Pennsylvania law would not generally hold school officials directly liable for a student's bullying of another student unless those officials sanctioned, authorized, encouraged, or ratified the bullying acts, which would be an extraordinary case.
Other Pennsylvania Tort Law and Bullying Victims
Pennsylvania tort law recognizes other theories of recovery beyond negligence. Those theories may include intentional infliction of emotional distress, assault, battery, and defamation. These claims, though, typically involve proof of intentional wrongs. School officials are unlikely to commit intentional wrongs against a student. Evidence of that kind would be an extraordinary case. Your student may hold the bullies liable under intentional tort theories, but student bullies are not generally collectible defendants. Your student's school would also likely not have vicarious liability for a student's bullying wrongs unless the school authorized, encouraged, or ratified the bullying acts. Your student's school and its officials may still have governmental immunity, except in the unusual case of an exception. Let our attorneys help you determine your student's available theories for money damages.
Pennsylvania Compensation Theories for Private School Bullying
Your student does not face the above obstacles when pursuing a private school for money damages over bullying harms. Private schools and their teachers and staff do not have governmental immunity. Your student need only plead a recoverable tort theory, likely in negligence, for the private school's failure to reasonably protect your student from the harm. Your student may also have contract theories of recovery against the private school if the school promised protection against bullying but then failed to provide those protections.
Federal Laws Compensating for Bullying Harm
Federal law may provide your student with a money damages recovery for public school bullying, whether or not your student has a state law claim under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act or Pennsylvania tort law. A federal claim for monetary damages may especially be your student's best recourse in the event of governmental immunity against a state law action. Immunity would generally not apply to the following federal law recovery theories.
Section 1983 Substantive Due Process Claims
The Civil War-era federal statute 42 USC Section 1983 provides for private money damages action against local agencies and officials who act under the color of state law to deprive the claimant of constitutional rights. When school officials deliberately ignore bullying about which they know from the victim's report or other reports, they may violate constitutional due process or equal protection. Cases of that type have resulted in substantial monetary recoveries. Your student may have a Section 1983 action if the case involves deliberate indifference to substantial harm from the violation of clearly established rights. Section 1983 cases have prevailed under theories of 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), and shocks the conscience test, Range v. Douglas, 763 F.3d 573, 588 (6th Cir. 2014). Let our attorneys help evaluate your student's Section 1983 claim.
Federal Anti-Discrimination Laws and Bullying Compensation
Bullies tend to focus their attacks on the victim's distinguishing characteristics. When federal anti-discrimination laws protect those characteristics, but the school ignores your student's anti-discrimination rights, your student may have other federal claims for monetary damages. These federal anti-discrimination provisions do not necessarily provide for a private right of action for damages on their own. But Section 1983 and other federal laws may authorize a money damages action in conjunction with these laws. In short, your student may be able to recover for bullying if the school violates any of these laws protecting against discrimination in education based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual violence, disability, and related categories:
- Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973;
- the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act;
- 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.
Pennsylvania Bullying Defendants
Your student's school and school district are generally the appropriate defendants in money damages actions under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act and other laws. The school and district are also financially responsible defendants, meaning that they will have insurance or other funds out of which to pay the awarded damages. Suits against the involved teachers, school staff, or district officials can be more difficult because of the available individual immunity and because of questions as to whether the school district will indemnify them (pay for their wrong) or, if not, they are individually collectible. Your student may also have clear claims against the student bullies, but suing a student may not result in a collectible award. Insurance is not likely to cover such an award, and the school will not likely indemnify the student wrongdoer to pay the award. Let us help you determine who are the best defendants for your student to pursue a money damages recovery for bullying harm.
Damages Types for Pennsylvania Bullying Victims
Pennsylvania personal injury law generally provides a make-whole remedy of compensatory damages. If your student has a viable recovery theory, then your student may be able to recover for any loss that flows naturally and foreseeably from the bullying harm. The easiest losses to prove tend to be economic losses for things like damaged, stolen, or destroyed personal property (eyewear, clothing, jewelry, electronic devices, books, etc.), medical and counseling expenses, and any lost wages or lost earning capacity due to a related inability to work. But Pennsylvania law also provides for recovery of non-economic losses like pain, suffering, mental and emotional distress, lost enjoyment of life, and even embarrassment and humiliation. Pennsylvania law authorizes punitive damages only in select cases, typically requiring proof of the defendant's malicious or outrageous conduct. Pennsylvania laws, in certain cases, also cap damages at no more than $250,000. Our attorneys can help you determine your student's damages under Pennsylvania law.
Pursuing a Pennsylvania Civil Action for Bullying
Pursuing a civil claim against a public school and its employees for bullying harm involves a technical and complex set of laws and procedures. Few attorneys have the skills, experience, and commitment to pursue these types of claims. Do not expect a local criminal defense attorney or trial attorney to have those skills, that experience, and the requisite commitment.
When you retain our Education Law Team to evaluate and pursue your student's Pennsylvania school bullying claim, our attorneys will investigate the claim to discover admissible evidence. We will then prepare and file a detailed and compelling complaint in the correct court or administrative tribunal. Our attorneys know how to advocate and negotiate for early voluntary resolution. But we are also ready to pursue your student's case through discovery and pretrial motions and to take the case to trial if necessary. Our attorneys can also help you enforce the judgment or award and defend or take appeals to ensure that your student gets the full benefit of your student's anti-bullying rights.
Defending Disciplinary Charges Against Bullying Victims
State legislatures recognize that students who suffer bullying often act out. Bullying victims often unintentionally create their own disciplinary issues. You've seen above the reports and statistics on bullying's harmful impact. Bullying may cause your student to get low grades, fail courses, skip classes, and face suspension, alternative disciplinary education, or expulsion for failure to progress academically and related misconduct like truancy, class disruption, teacher disrespect, and even vandalism. Our attorneys are prepared to defend your student in disciplinary proceedings while also pursuing your student's bullying claim. Don't let the school blame your student for bullying's harmful impact. Get your student the disciplinary defense your student needs.
Avoiding Pennsylvania School Bullying
You may be able to help your student minimize the bullying and its impact while improving your student's prospect for school relief from the bullying and a monetary recovery if the school fails in its duties. Tell your student not to join the bullies, even if the bullies use their tactics to coerce your student to do so. Tell your student to immediately report any bullying to teachers and other school staff and to you so that you can make and document your own reports. Tell your student not to fear retaliation for reports because the school has the legal duty to protect your student from retaliation. Reassure your student that you will support your student throughout the process and that you are retaining us to help.
Don't let the school make bullying into your student's problem. Let your student know that we are available to ensure that your student's effort to avoid and address bullying is the right thing to do and that the bullying will stop. Explain the above law and procedures to your student. Help your student understand that your student can and should rely on you and on us to help enforce the Pennsylvania and federal laws that should protect your student from bullying.
Representation for Pennsylvania Bullying Victims
Retain the LLF Law Firm's premier Education Law Team to represent your Pennsylvania grade school student in a civil action and other proceedings to recover 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 Pennsylvania student needs.
