Suing about school bullies

[Ed: This is not a real case. It must not be taken as legal advice.
It was not prepared by a lawyer, but only by a mouthy kid with a typewriter. It is presented for your amusement and speculation.]

Ralph P. Citizen, in propria persona
Box 85 / GradeCurve, Attendance 12345-0085
Telephone 555-2345

IN THE SUPERIOR COURT
COUNTY OF PALMER, STATE OF ATTENDANCE

The Honorable Ed U. Cation, Presiding Judge

Ralph P. and Mary Citizen, ) Case No. ___________________
Plaintiffs, )
vs. ) CIVIL SUIT FOR
John H. Schoolman, ) NON-FEASANCE OF
____________Defendant. ______________ ) A PUBLIC OFFICIAL

Now come Ralph P. Citizen and Mary Citizen, of GradeCurve, County of Palmer, State of Attendance, complaining that John H. Schoolman, who has a statutory duty to protect their minor son, Tommy G. Citizen, over whom the said Schoolman claims to stand in loco parentis; repeatedly, often and consistently fails in said protective duty, to the said child’s great disadvantage, physical injury, pain and humiliation.

JURISDICTION:
This court has jurisdiction to decide this case.

STATEMENT OF FACTS:
John Lifton, also known as “Little John;” and Don McQuellard, who likes to call himself “Mafia Don,” are enrolled in GradeCurve Elementary School. They are large for their age, over-age for their grade, mean, foul-smelling, foul-speaking, ignorant, dishonest, ugly, evil, cruel, thieving, lying bullies (and those are their good points). They have cursed, swindled, robbed, hit, kicked, slapped, tripped, shoved, pinched, punched, pantsed, poked and/or slugged nearly every child at GradeCurve, “just for the fun of it”.

Tommy G. Citizen is a minor child enrolled at GradeCurve Elementary School. He has been on the receiving end of the torments dished out by the aforementioned bullies on at least twenty occasions during this school year. He has suffered bruises, lacerations, pain and fear. They have forcibly robbed him of his lunch money on at least half a dozen occasions. They have thrown his schoolbooks in the toilet. They have pantsed him in public. The worst part is the continuing humiliation of it all.

John H. Schoolman is the Principal of GradeCurve Elementary School. All of the above facts have been reported to him many times, verbally and in writing. In fact, he is so tired of having this sort of facts reported to him that he has quit returning phone calls from irate parents. In spite of all this, he has not done a thing to reduce bullying at his school. He has not disciplined the bullies. He has not asked the school board to expel them. He has not called the police in on this issue. He has not filed criminal charges against the bullies. (Oh, he did call their parents once, but they said he was just picking on their boys, and hung up. That was the end of that.)

The Plaintiffs are not suing the School. The School did not fail to protect the child. They are not suing the School District. The School district has strict policies that require bullies to be kept in line. They are not suing the School Board. The School Board wrote and voted those policies. The Plaintiffs are suing the school Principal, John H. Schoolman, personally, only, solely, in his own personal capacity, for so signally failing to do his statutory duty to protect his charges from one another.

RELIEF REQUESTED:
The Plaintiffs request that Principal Schoolman be ordered to pay a thousand dollars in actual, general and punitive damages, out of his own pocket, so as to make him a fit example to all other in loco parentis school officials not to ignore their statutory duty to protect their students from one another.

_________________________________ ________________________________
(Ralph P. Citizen) (Mary Citizen)

Signed and submitted with all due respect this ____ day of _______, 20­­__.

A second original of this document is submitted to the Court for service to:
John H. Schoolman, Principal of GradeCurve Elementary School
422 Liberal Education Avenue / GradeCurve, Attendance 12345.
(A courtesy copy has already been mailed to him.)