The parents of a 12-year-old girl who killed herself are suing a New Jersey school district for not doing enough to protect their daughter.
WABC reports Mallory Grossman's parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Rockaway Township Board of Education and its staff.
The lawsuit states that Mallory Grossman was relentlessly taunted in the weeks leading to her suicide on June 14, 2017.
"When are you going to kill yourself?" bullies allegedly asked in text and Snapchat messages.
Other cruel messages allegedly read: "You have no friends," "fat," "jiggly," and "poor Mal."
Dianne Grossman said she and her husband repeatedly contacted school officials to tell them of the bullying, but that the school's response was inadequate.
According to NJ.com, the family alleges not only did the school fail to enact policies to comply with the state's anti-bullying statute, but officials also advised them not to file a formal complaint under the law.
Instead, the lawsuit states, officials suggested Mallory Grossman eat lunch in a guidance counselor's office to avoid bullies. She was also allegedly forced to hug one of her tormentors as an apparent attempt at reconciliation.
"The school had a very basic obligation: to keep (its) young students safe," attorney Bruce Nagel said.
"I really want schools to understand the gravity of what has happened. Mallory is not a 2-minute news story. She is our daughter and she's forever gone," Dianne Grossman said. "Our family is forever changed because they chose not to put systems in place, they chose not to protect her, so I want other school systems to learn from this and to start making immediate changes within their buildings."
Diane Grossman said those who harassed her daughter still have not been punished.
"We know that the poor behavior and poor decisions these kids make has not changed," Dianne Grossman said. "They do not believe ultimately that they are responsible for it."
"At this stage, we have not brought a lawsuit against the four families whose children bullied Mallory," Nagel said, adding that those families have been put on notice for possible legal action.
The Grossmans first announced their intent to sue the school district in 2017. The township's Board of Education has previously called the allegations "categorically false."
Diane Grossman has become an anti-bullying advocate, leading a group called "Mallory's Army." A GoFundMe campaign has raised money for a memorial for Mallory.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that suicide was the third-leading cause of death among children ages 10 to 14 in 2015. The rise in social media usage is seen as a factor.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
ServalSpots on June 21st, 2018 at 02:22 UTC »
Their solution was to ostracize the victim? What the hell were they thinking? It seems this was poorly handled in a lot of ways, but that one really sticks out to me for some reason.
locks_are_paranoid on June 21st, 2018 at 02:18 UTC »
When I was in middle school, kids would bully me all the time. Every day I had to hold in my anger to avoid fighting back. One day I had enough, and I threw the lock from my locker at the bully's head. I got one day of lunch detention, and I had to write an apology letter to the bully. But no matter how many times I reported the bully to the administration, nothing was ever done. I ended up getting more punishment for fighting back than the bully ever got for bullying me. The administration just told me to ignore the bullying, and never did anything to punish the bullies.
pinsandpearls on June 20th, 2018 at 23:18 UTC »
The school didn't handle any part of that correctly. Forcing a student to hug another student, especially one who bullied and tormented them? Who thinks of that and goes, "yep... this is a great idea, a forced hug will fix everything!"