BRUNSWICK, Maine — In what appears to be a precedent-setting move, the Maine Human Rights Commission plans to sue the Brunswick School Department for allegedly discriminating against a former junior high school student who was bullied.
Amy Sneirson, executive director of the commission, confirmed Thursday that commissioners voted 3-1 on Monday in favor of filing a lawsuit. She said she was not yet sure whether the suit would seek “civil penal damages.”
Snierson said she was not aware of any prior case in which the commission sued a school district because of bullying. No such cases have been filed since at least 1996. School bullying complaints have been filed with the commission since then, but were resolved by an agreement or by a “right to sue” letter issued by the commission.
The commission voted in June to uphold a report by commission investigator Victoria Ternig that found the school department discriminated against the unnamed student who was harassed and bullied from August 2010 to August 2012.
After a statutory mediation failed to produce an agreement, according to Sneirson, the commission voted 3-1 on Monday to follow the investigator’s recommendation and file a lawsuit.
In her report, Ternig wrote the school department “allowed a hostile education environment to persist for a lengthy period of time” and that the student was discriminated against on the basis of his “perceived sexual orientation and sex.”
She wrote the abuse against the student continued despite Brunswick school administrators’ efforts to stop and prevent it.
Allegations that the boy had been sexually assaulted by other students were investigated by the Brunswick police and forwarded to the Cumberland County District Attorney’s office, Brunswick Police Cmdr. Mark Waltz said in June.
Waltz said that the district attorney declined to pursue charges. On Thursday, he said was prohibited by law from discussing why no charges were filed.
In an email Thursday, Sneirson said the commission “often” seeks “civil penal damages” when it files suits, but she was not yet sure if they would seek monetary damages in this case. The suit will be filed by the MHRC “for the use of” the complainant, Snierson said, and any potential damages awarded would go to the alleged victim.
If the victim also files a lawsuit under the Maine Human Rights Act, the two cases would be joined and heard as one, according to Snierson.
At the time of the commission’s initial hearing on the complaint, Courtney Beer, an attorney with Pine Tree Legal Assistance who represented the boy’s family, told the Bangor Daily News the family would consider a lawsuit against the school. Beer did not return a phone call Thursday.
Snierson declined to comment further on the case, but said, “The factors the commission considers when deciding whether to bring a lawsuit include: Is it an issue that is important to the commission? Is it a strong case? Is it something where investing our resources into litigation can have a significant impact?”
Brunswick Superintendent of Schools Paul Perzanoski on Thursday declined to comment on the situation. In July, Perzanoski said in a statement the department was “extremely disappointed” with the commission’s decision. He cited a well-known anti-bullying expert who used Brunswick Junior High School as an example “of a school doing a right thing to address the issue.”
The suit is expected to be filed by Jan. 12, 2015. MHRC attorney Barbara Archer Hirsch told the Forecaster the suit would seek “to ensure that protections are put in place that will prevent unlawful discrimination from continuing to occur in the future.”