10-Step Plan To Ensure Bullying Doesn't Cost You

For the first time, a court used a civil rights law to hold a school district financially accountable in a case of student bullying. In the recent case of Cohen v. Philadelphia School District, the court awarded $500,000 to a transgender student because the school district failed to stop her from being bullied. What can you learn from this development?

Court Punishes School District For Not Doing More

In the Cohen case, a student endured severe and persistent taunting, teasing, bullying, and harassment from fellow students based on her gender presentation, including both name-calling and physical abuse. Despite continual complaints to the school district by the student's mother, and even moving the student to different schools within the district, the administrators did not take any steps to remedy the situation except to suspend the student who physically assaulted the student. Unsurprisingly, the harassment continued, and the student's family felt it had no choice but to bring a lawsuit.

In its decision, the court noted that the school did not have a procedure in place to address the discrimination and bullying suffered by the student. The court also noted that the school staff responsible for overseeing students were not even aware of the policies that were supposed to be in place or procedures to implement them. The court concluded that the school district failed to take steps to prevent further harassment resulting in multiple incidents of bullying, entering an award in the student's favor.

Courts Have Options Available To Hold Schools Accountable

This case is indicative of a trend by courts to find schools liable for bullying, looking for ways to punish schools that fail to protect students regardless of the strength of state anti-bullying laws. Under President Obama's anti-bullying initiative, the Department of Education (DOE) listed 16 different components of state anti-bullying laws. However, the DOE was silent on whether state anti-bullying laws should require private schools to develop anti-bullying laws. Although all 50 states and the District of Columbia have enacted some type of anti-bullying law, only six states prohibit bullying in private schools as well as public schools.

However, instead of relying on an anti-bullying law, the court based its decision holding the school district liable under the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA), which prohibits discrimination based on sex. This is the first time a state court in...