Gloucester County School District Reaches Settlement in Student Harassment Case

An elementary school district in Gloucester County will pay an African-American student $75,000 to resolve allegations that it failed to effectively address race-based bullying aimed at her when she attended elementary school in the district, Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman and the Division on Civil Rights announced Wednesday morning.

The Franklin School District Board of Education must also pay the student, who is now a teenager, at least $2,500 under the settlement for creation of an anti-bullying awareness program to be used in the district this school year.

The district must also review and revise its policy regarding student harassment, intimidation and bullying to ensure compliance with the requirements set forth in New Jersey’s Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights, as necessary.

It must also ensure that all school personnel responsible for investigating and responding to complaints of harassment, intimidation and bullying receive appropriate training, and submit a list of those who have been trained with training details to the Division of Civil Rights.

The girl, who is not being identified because she is a minor, was a student at Main Road School from 2005 through 2009.

She was harassed by other students from the time she was in third-grade through the end of her sixth-grade year. Harassment included race-based name calling and other bias-driven remarks.

The district denied it engaged in unlawful discrimination, or that the girl was a victim of a hostile school environment. It claimed each incident was investigated immediately and handled properly by administrators.

However, a Finding of Probable Cause issued by the Division on Civil Rights in May 2011 noted that the alleged harassment persisted over a four-year span despite numerous complaints from the girl’s parents to the school’s principal and the Franklin Township schools superintendent.

“This settlement represents a fair resolution to a disturbing matter,” Hoffman said. “As we begin another school year, this case should serve as a reminder to school districts throughout the state that they have a duty to New Jersey’s children to create and maintain a bullying-free learning environment, and that they have a legal responsibility when confronted with reports that a student is being bullied to take affirmative steps ‘reasonably calculated’ to end the conduct.”

“No child should have to endure the kind of alleged harassment that took place in this case,” Division on Civil Rights Director Craig T. Sashihara said. “The student conduct described here was deplorable. And one of the issues we continue to stress statewide, through awareness and enforcement, is that school districts are responsible for implementing a genuinely effective response when this kind of student-on-student activity is reported.”

Sashihara also noted that, for school districts, merely responding to isolated incidents in a vacuum may not be effective when school officials know that the child is being subjected to a wider pattern of on-going bullying and harassment. While the district in this case did take some action in response to the parents’ complaints, the Division on Civil Rights determined in its Finding of Probable Cause that the actions taken were not effective since the harassment recurred and, in fact, became more severe.

Although the parties involved agreed to all terms, the Franklin settlement required a review hearing before a State Superior Court Judge in Gloucester County, because the Complainant is a minor.

On Sept. 3, Superior Court Judge Jean B. McMaster presided over such a hearing, and subsequently approved the settlement.