School district pays $87K in bullying case
The Rochester School Board agreed this week to pay parents who said the district was negligent when it failed to protect their middle school son, who was bullied in 2008 in a gym locker room, the Rochester Post-Bulletin reports.
In settling a lawsuit, the district agreed to pay $87,500 to the family. The family was paid an additional $32,000 by the insurance company of the parents whose son was accused of doing the bullying, the newspaper reports.
Rochester has been shaken by several bullying cases, including that of 13-year old Rachel Ehmke, whose father said she took her own life after relentless bullying at school and online from a group of girls, MPR reported earlier this year. In another case, bullying played “a big part” in the suicide of a 17-year-old high school student, his father said.
Gov. Mark Dayton has said he aims to strengthen Minnesota's law on bullying, and he met last month with a state task force that has issued a report calling the current bullying law ineffective, MPR reported.
