New Jersey Bullying Victim Representation

New Jersey's elementary and secondary schools, from kindergarten through grade twelve, have a legal duty to prevent student bullying. When policies fail to protect students from their legal rights, bullying victims have options to pursue actions at the school level, district level, and higher. If administrative relief at the school or district level does not produce the desired results, state and federal oversight entities have a duty to investigate and sanction the school or district. A final level of recourse may involve suing the school district in civil court for monetary damages and injunctive relief.

Reach out to the Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team if your New Jersey K-12 student is a bullying victim who deserves legal relief. Bullying is a serious matter. Let us help you fight for your student's rights in New Jersey. Call us at (888)535-3686 or reach out to us online.

The Problem of Bullying in New Jersey K-12 Schools

New Jersey ranks in the top 5 states with the biggest bullying problem, according to a 2023 study that looked at bullying's prevalence across the United States, its impact and treatment, and anti-bullying laws in each state.

New Jersey is not alone in being home to a number of tragic high-profile bullying lawsuits, including cases in Northern New Jersey's Rockaway public school district, Jersey Shore's and Pine's Central Regional school district, and the Paulsboro school district in South Jersey. Indeed, bullying is a nationwide epidemic, with more than one in five students ages 12 to 18 reporting being bullied. The harm that bullying causes can break hearts and ruin lives. Youth who are victims of bullying are more likely to suffer from depression, anxiety, and loneliness.

These struggles manifest in a variety of ways in school and at home, including plummeting grades, poor attendance, and problems with sleeping and eating. Tragically, youth who are bullied face a greater likelihood of exhibiting suicide-related behavior.

It's no wonder that attorneys and legal experts report that school bullying-related lawsuits are on the rise. More and more parents and guardians are seeking damages for schools' negligence in protecting students' well-being, citing failing to train staff properly, violating New Jersey's civil rights act and state constitution, and intentionally inflicting emotional distress. These lawsuits are painful and often lengthy, with families having to relive the most horrific moments of their lives in court for years.

Evolution of New Jersey's Anti-Bullying Legislation

Decades have passed since New Jersey enacted its 2002 public school anti-bullying statute, and in that time, a number of amendments have been passed, aiming to address burgeoning and current issues, like online bullying, and require that schools more proactively communicate their anti-bullying policies to families.

One such amendment, signed into law in 2011, created the state's Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act (ABR), requiring public schools to prevent and interrupt bullying both on and off school property, at school-sponsored activities, and on school buses.

In 2012, an amendment established a state Anti-Bullying Task Force within the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE). This task force was charged with guiding public school districts in implementing the ABR by:

• Providing the Commissioner of Education with model regulations
• Making necessary and appropriate recommendations regarding the ABR
• Submitting annual reports for three years on the ABR's effectiveness in addressing bullying in schools

Most recently, in 2022, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed amendments to the state's 2011 ABR mandating that school districts further strengthen their Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying (HIB) policies with the goal of improving how bullying in school (and off-school grounds) is prevented, reported, investigated, and responded to.

As well, New Jersey's Commission on Bullying was created in January 2008 to study bullying's impact and issue recommendations for strengthening the state's anti-bullying laws and practices. The commission has since published reports and guidance on topics such as bullying's impact on students with disabilities and students identifying as LGBTQ, staff training, establishing regional reporting centers, and ways schools can apply for funding to address bullying.

How New Jersey Defines Bullying

In New Jersey, anti-bullying laws and regulations define harassment, intimidation, and bullying as:

“any gesture, any written, verbal or physical act, or any electronic communication, whether it be a single incident or a series of incidents, that is:

• reasonably perceived as being motivated either by any actual or perceived characteristic, such as race, color, religion, ancestry, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression, or a mental, physical, or sensory disability, or
• by any other distinguishing characteristic; and that
• takes place on school property, at any school-sponsored function, on a school bus, or off school grounds, as provided for in N.J.S.A. 18A:37-15.3, that substantially disrupts or interferes with the orderly operation of the school or the rights of other students; and that
• a reasonable person should know, under the circumstances, that the act(s) will have the effect of physically or emotionally harming a student, or damaging the student's property, or placing a student in reasonable fear of physical or emotional harm to his person or damage to his property; or
• has the effect of insulting or demeaning any student or group of students; or
• creates a hostile educational environment for the student by interfering with a student's education or by severely or pervasively causing physical or emotional harm to the student.”

Behaviors that could constitute bullying in New Jersey include:

• teasing, taunting, harassing, threatening, or coercing in person
• teasing, taunting, harassing, threatening, or oppressing online or via cell phone
• physical acts intended to annoy or oppress, such as striking, hitting, kicking, shoving, pinching, slapping, or poking
• spreading rumors, gossiping, ostracizing, or encouraging social exclusion
• using threats or harassment to intimidate or coerce a student into behaving a certain way
• requiring a student to undergo hazing, embarrassment, endangerment, or discomfort in order to join a club or activity
• any of the above types of bullying, intimidation, or harassment that is based on race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or other protected categories and characteristics.

New Jersey Anti-Bullying Laws

New Jersey has a multitude of anti-bullying statutes and administrative codes pertaining to staff training, certification programs, instruction on the safe use of social media, transgender students, incidents of bullying occurring off school grounds, anti-bullying coordinators, formal protocols for investigating complaints, reporting bullying, law enforcement liaisons, codes of conduct, and more. Below are some important components.

School Policies

By law, all public school districts in New Jersey must have a policy that prohibits HIB. Ideally, these policies are created with the collaboration of school staff, families, students, community members, and volunteers. Policies are required to include:

• A definition of HIB that, at minimum, adheres to the requirements in state statutes
• Behavior expectations for students that, minimally, include student responsibilities pertaining to respecting others' rights and property, conforming to reasonable standards of socially acceptable behavior, and obeying and responding to authority; appropriate recognition for positive citizenship; student rights; and sanctions and due process for violations of conduct codes
• Consequences and appropriate means of remedying harm for perpetrators of HIB
• Procedures for reporting and investigating HIB, including ways to report anonymously
• Statements prohibiting HIB and reprisal or retaliation
• A statement that bullying is aggressive, may involve a power imbalance, and may be committed by adults or youth
• A statement of how the district's policy will be communicated to students and families
• The designation of an anti-bullying coordinator
• A combination of mental health services (whether interventions, counseling, or other supports) available to students

In addition to these requirements, school districts are encouraged to:

• Evaluate, assess, review, and, if necessary, revise their anti-bullying policies annually, collaborating with school anti-bullying specialists throughout the district
• Work with students, staff, families, local law enforcement, and community members to “establish, implement, document, and assess bullying prevention programs or approaches”
• Create school safety teams focused on creating a positive school climate and teach students about preventing HIB as well as safe social media practices.

Transgender students and other protected groups

Legally, New Jersey schools must address any discriminatory behavior that appears to be motivated by race, national origin, color, religion, gender (and gender identity and expression), sexual orientation, or disability.

Schools also receive guidance to implement from the Department of Education to ensure supportive, safe environments for transgender students.

If an incident of bullying appears to be based on a protected group as outlined in the “Law Against Discrimination,” P.L.1945, c.169 (C.10:5-1 et seq.), a student, parent, guardian, or organization has 180 days to file a complaint with the Division on Civil Rights.

The Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights reports that there were 2,378 incidents of bullying based on race, color, or national origin in New Jersey in the 2017-18 school year, which offers the most recent data available.

Federal Anti-Bullying Laws Supporting Civil Liability

Federal law is lacking in an expressly stated prohibition of bullying in school. In general, victims and their families must refer to New Jersey state law instead if they wish to pursue civil litigation to seek damages from harm due to bullying in a New Jersey K-12 school. That said, bullying can occur in conjunction with discriminatory behavior that federal laws prohibit. Taken together with 42 USC Section 1983 or other laws, you may have a case to pursue monetary damages. Federal anti-discrimination laws that could apply include:

• Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which grants equal protection to public school students against discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin
• Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protects against race, color, or national origin discrimination in all schools, public or private, receiving federal financial assistance;
• Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which protects against sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, dating violence, and domestic violence in all schools, public or private, receiving federal financial assistance
• Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which guarantees equal access to schools for students with disabilities and prohibits discrimination based on disabilities
• Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires schools to reasonably accommodate students with disabilities
• The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities.

Keep in mind that under the above federal laws, bullying is typically not enough to support a civil court action against a school or school district without a connection to a protected category. You have the burden of illustrating how the perpetrator acted with animosity, specifically in relation to your student's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, disability, or other protected characteristic. You will also likely need to prove that the school was aware of this discriminatory behavior and was deliberately negligent in intervening. As with state law civil liability, federal civil liability is complex to prove, requiring skilled and experienced representation. We can help.

When an incident of bullying is reported at a school

New Jersey schools are required to have published procedures for investigating reports of bullying. What transpires once a report is made, at minimum, would involve:

• Following the submission of Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying Reporting Form 338, schools must keep this on file and all allegations must be investigated
• A principal or their designee must begin the investigation, along with the school's anti-bullying specialist, within one school day of a verbal HIB report
• Written findings from the investigation must be submitted to the principal within 10 school days of the written report of HIB
• The principal must apply the code of conduct consequences and submit a report to their chief school administrator within two days of the investigation's completion
• The district school administrator must ensure that intervention services, counseling, training, and any other necessary actions are implemented per the code of conduct and must report this to the school board at the next regularly scheduled board meeting
• Parents or guardians of the students involved must be notified of the outcome within five days of the school board meeting, including the consequences imposed and services offered
• Those parents or guardians can request a hearing before the school board

Hearing before the Board of Education

If your student has been involved in a HIB incident in a New Jersey public school, at the conclusion of the investigation, you have the right to request a hearing in front of your district's school board. Be sure you file a request within the required 60 days after you receive the outcome of the district's investigation.

The school board is required to hold your hearing within 10 business days of the request. Testimony about the alleged incident may be heard, as well as the investigation's findings. The Board of Education, at its next regularly scheduled meeting, must then affirm, reject, or amend the existing decision.

After you exhaust your administrative remedies with the school district, if you are still not satisfied with the school board's findings, you have 90 days to appeal the decision by filing a Petition of Appeal with the Office of Controversies and Dispute with the state Commissioner of Education.

When you file a Petition of Appeal, the onus is on you to prove your student's case, and the school or district will have an opportunity to present their side as well. From here, the matter will be sent to the Office of Administrative Law for a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge. It is at this hearing that the Administrative Law Judge will issue a decision and recommend conclusions to the Commissioner of Education.

The New Jersey Commissioner of Education will have 45 days to review the matter, receive exceptions from the parties, and issue a final decision adopting, rejecting, or modifying the initial decision of the judge. Commissioner's decisions are appealable to the Appellate Division of the Superior Court.

File a Complaint with the Division on Civil Rights o

When a student has been subjected to bias-based HIB, that is, the student is harassed based on membership in a protected class (race, color, national origin, sex, ancestry, nationality, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, marital status, civil union status, domestic partnership status) as set forth in the Law Against Discrimination (N.J.S.A. 10:5), a complaint against a school district may be filed with the Division on Civil Rights within 180 days of the harassing conduct.

Pursuing a New Jersey Civil Action on Behalf of a Bullying Victim

As you can see above, the first steps in seeking restitution from your student's school or school district will most often involve exhausting school administrative remedies. If you feel strongly that justice has not been served through these routes, you may wish to file a civil lawsuit to enforce your student's rights to monetary damages and injunctive relief.

If you are currently in this position, the steps below should give you a good idea of what your next actions might be:

• First, retain our skilled and experienced attorneys, who have substantial procedural knowledge and skill, to investigate, evaluate, and prepare your claim.
• Once retained, we will assist you in your pre-suit preparation, which includes identifying and gathering admissible evidence.
• Our attorneys will then file a detailed complaint with the appropriate court. A word of caution if you choose to go it alone: Submitting to the right court is critical; filing with the wrong court could result in your claim being dismissed.
• Our attorneys will serve the court's summons with your complaint on the appropriate school officials, instructing them to answer and defend your claim in a timely manner.
• Our attorneys will meet and negotiate with the school's legal counsel in an effort to find an early, favorable resolution for you and your student. It is quite common for cases to settle early.
• If, in the presentation stage described above, there isn't a settlement, a discovery period will follow. Our attorneys will oversee the collection and exchange of evidence with the school.
• If appropriate, we will file pretrial motions and respond to those that the school files. These may narrow the legal claims.
• If you wish at this point to explore mediation or another dispute resolution alternative to avoid a lengthy and unpredictable trial, we will assist you with this.
• In the event your case proceeds to trial, we will help you present your evidence and respond to the school's defense.
• If there is a judgment in your favor, we can help enforce it. If you are not satisfied with the result and wish to appeal, we can help you evaluate this option and pursue it on your behalf.

The above are just a sampling of the actions our attorneys can provide for you when you retain us to represent your student on a claim against the school for bullying harm. Civil litigation requires a very specific skill set. Set yourself and your student up for success by retaining the very best legal team.

Defending Disciplinary Charges Against a Bullying Victim

Students who suffer bullying sometimes face their own disciplinary proceedings in school. Being the victim of bullying can cause one to act out in retaliation and, unfortunately, become the subject of disciplinary investigations and consequences. Our Student Defense Team understands this complex phenomenon and can help you articulate and illustrate how this behavior isn't as straightforward as it may seem and that it may be the result of actions that the school failed to intervene in. Student Defense Team may take any one or more of these actions on your student's behalf:

• documenting and reporting the bullying
• answering the disciplinary complaint and preparing a defense
• invoking the school's disciplinary procedures to support a defense
• negotiating with school disciplinary administrators
• seeking alternative special relief through school oversight entities

Strong Representation for New Jersey Bullying Victims

The Lento Law Firm's premier Education Law Team is ready to take on your New Jersey civil litigation case for monetary damages and injunctive relief relating to bullying incidents and harms. The Lento Law Firm's Education Law Team has helped hundreds of students nationwide at all levels, from kindergarten through college, and on all issues, including bullying, hazing, and harassment. Call 888.535.3686 now or tell us about your case through our online form. Get the skilled and experienced help you need to protect your student.