A February 2020 schoolyard assault that left a 13-year-old boy with a severe knee injury, eye bruising, and a shoe print imbedded on his face has resulted in a lawsuit against the Sierra Vista Unified School District (SVUSD) and several school officials, in a case that will feature multiple videos recorded by other students.
A Feb. 9 lawsuit filed by the mother of a Joyce Clark Middle School (JCSM) student claims SVUSD, the State of Arizona, and the school’s principal, assistant principal, and a counselor alleges that school officials failed to prevent a Feb. 28. 2020 attack on the boy, even though he reportedly told Fran Atkinson, a counselor, about the threats.
According to the lawsuit, in February 2020 the boy was in the seventh grade at JCMS. His attorneys also describe him as African American, and a homosexual, a subject “generally known to the staff and students of JCMS,” including Atkinson, Principal Roger Hill, and Assistant Principal John Skarhus.
“These facts isolated him before the Assault,” the lawsuit states. “Being attacked and refusing to fight back against three girls has only further isolated a young man who already felt very different from his peers.”
The lawsuit states that since 2017, the boy reported several incidents of “bullying and ridicule” by other students to JCMS employees, including Hill, Skarhus and Atkinson. But by December 2019, the boys had become the victim of regular “derision and threats” from two specific teenaged girls.
The students are not being identified by Arizona Daily Independent even though they are named in the lawsuit.
Despite continued complaints to school officials, the lawsuit alleges the student heard rumors on Feb. 27, 2020 that the two girls “planned to beat him up” after school. The next day, the boy notified Atkinson of the rumors and his concern.
“Defendant Atkinson advised (the boy) that she would handle the situation and directed him to return to class,” the lawsuit states. “She did not provide him any information on his rights as a student reporting harassment or bullying.”
When classes were dismissed on Feb. 28, 2020, the boy left the school building and headed to his bus stop in front of the school. Then, as other students recorded the scene on cell phones, the two girls previously identified and another girl (referred to in the lawsuit as the Primary Attackers) approach the boy.
According to the lawsuit, the boy stated he would not fight with girls. But the Primary Attackers jumped onto the boy “hitting and punching his head and pulling him to the ground. While (the boy) is on the ground, the assault continues, with the Primary Attackers pulling on (the boy’s) hair and clothing, kicking him and punching him repeatedly.”
Other students cheered the attack and yelled slurs regarding the boy’s sexual orientation and race, including the “n-word.” More students joined in the assault, and when one student tried to pull the boy to safety his efforts were blocked.
The attack lasted about three minutes before school employees arrive. Videos of the assault were later posted on social media sites such as SnapChat in what the lawsuit characterizes as cyberbullying incidents.
The lawsuit alleges the school defendants breached their duty of care by failing to follow policy for handling the boy’s report of the attack threat. It also alleges other policies were violated by the school officials’ response to the assault and the lack of a proper post-assault investigation.
“The crowd of children was allowed to disperse. No children were required to stay behind to be interviewed or detail what they had seen. No cellular phones were searched or collected after the Assault ended,” the lawsuit states.
What’s more, no one immediately called the Sierra Vista Police Department or emergency medical personnel, and the Primary Attackers were allowed to go home. Meanwhile, the boy was given a bag of ice at a nurse’s office, but no one from the school called his mother.
When the mother was called by her son she went to the school and then drove him to a local hospital for treatment. The mother, on behalf of herself and her son, seeks damages in an amount to be proven at trial, as well as an award for on-going treatment for the physical and emotional harms suffered by the boy.
A request for punitive damages is also included, which will require a showing that one or more of the defendants acted with an “evil mind” due to intentional ill will toward by boy or consciously chose to do nothing to protect the boy despite knowing the boy was likely to be harmed.
According to the lawsuit, at least two of the girls involved in the assault were going to be expelled. However, the mother believes they were later allowed to voluntarily withdraw from the school retroactive to the date of the assault. If true, that would mean the girls would likely have no disciplinary record connected to the attack.
Arizona Daily Independent has been unable to verify whether any of the students involved in the fight were referred to the Cochise County Juvenile Court for delinquency proceedings.