The Williamson County Board of Education and member Susan Curlee are named in a draft complaint issued earlier this month.
The draft complaint, which is a last ditch notice after settlement has not been reached in a potential lawsuit, has not been filed.
The plaintiff in the possible lawsuit is John Doe, who was or still is a student at Heritage Middle School. And the complaint alleges he suffered at the actions of the school board and Curlee.
This comes in the aftermath of an incident in February at Heritage Middle School. A video of the incident, recorded on a student’s cell phone, was circulated soon afterward. It shows two students, one larger than the other. The larger student is the plaintiff, John Doe. The video shows the smaller student squirt John Doe with water out of a water bottle. After the smaller student turns, John Doe punches him in the head. The blow caused a concussion and an uproar.
In April, the school board voted against a settlement in the matter. Shortly thereafter the lawyers for John Doe and his parents issued the draft complaint.
“Oftentimes, it is a last ditch effort, one last stab at amicable solution,” said Lisa Carson, attorney for WCSBOE.
Differing Points of View
The uproar that followed the incident came down to who you believe is the bully in the situation. John Doe’s parents, in threatening a lawsuit, allege that he was harassed; that the school board and Curlee specifically had an inappropriate response to that harassment which led to further humiliation and harassment; and that no action was taken against Curlee. The draft complaint says that John Doe has a disability under Section 504 and ADA, and as such requires an Individualized Education Plan under the Individuals with Disabilities Act. Disabilities that qualify under these can include anything from ADHD to autism.
The lawsuit says that, after the incident and after the students were punished (according to the “bully’s” mother, John Doe was out of school for three days), Curlee “counseled the parent to go outside of the superintendent and to seek media exposure of the incident and to publish details about John Doe.”
However, the mother told radio talk show host Michael DelGiorno at the time that she was already planning to go to the media and had already notified superintendent Dr. Mike Looney of that, before Curlee ever contacted her.
“I went to nobody except for the school officials,” she told DelGiorno. “I let them know at that meeting if my son was not safe and schools did not seem safe that the media would be contacted with the video. However, the media contacted me.”
The lawsuit alleges, also, that the video was leaked to the media and that led to a “narrative that John Doe was the bully.”
Then, it alleges, that a private e-mail from Dr. Looney that explained about John Doe’s learning disability, the incident and his response. The e-mail, the draft alleges, was leaked by Curlee. Looney responded by writing a letter to Curlee saying she had violated Federal Privacy laws and “compromised the Board’s legal position and exposed” herself to legal action.
After that, the complaint claims there was further harassment and vilification of John Doe.
“The actions taken by Defendant Curlee, in fomenting media attention and leaking private information were a clearly inadequate response to bullying,” it reads.
It claims that as a result John Doe- the student who punched the “bully” in the head and gave him a concussion- was harassed and bullied even more by his fellow students, and now is humiliated and in fear of going to school.
The mother of the student that the lawsuit calls a bully told DelGionro at the time that John Doe called her son, who is bi-racial, a “white-a** n*****,” and his friend, of Mexican heritage, numerous racial epithets; that he had thrown her son’s friend up against a bus, threatened him and her son and been bullying multiple students.
She said that the students were scared of John Doe, and had not reported his bullying because he threatened them.
She also said that he had anger and racial issues and that the water was only thrown on John Doe after John Doe attempted to steal her son’s water bottle.
The draft lawsuit mentions none of this.
“To our knowledge this complaint has not yet been filed,” Carol Birdsong, Communications Director for WCS, said. Curlee did not respond to request for comment.
The attorneys for John Doe and his parents are Justin Bobbitt, PLC of Gilbert, Russell, McWherter of Chattanooga and attorney Jessica F. Salonus of Jackson, Tennessee.
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