The Fourth District Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal of a wrongful death case filed by the parents of a deceased sophomore against Chino’s Ayala High School Oct. 27.
Paula and Christopher LeRoy filed a suit against the Chino Valley Unified School District, its principal and its assistant principal, in 2016, alleging that they were responsible for their son’s suicide due to their inadequate response to his complaints of bullying. The parents specifically accused the district and its employees of negligence and of violating Title IX.
The San Bernardino Superior Court granted summary judgment for the defendants, but the LeRoys appealed.
The appellate court ruled the district and the administrators are statutorily immune from liability in an unpublished opinion.
Kennedy
The LeRoys’ son, Kennedy LeRoy, had Tourette Syndrome, sensory integration disorder and borderline Asperger’s, causing him to take a virtual school program, according to the ruling. He attended the school during sophomore year only for lunch and two periods, one of which was cooking class.
At school, other students called him a gay slur, pushed him into the walls, threw things at him and told him to stop talking, according to the ruling.
School response
In March 2015, Kennedy reported one of the students to Assistant Principal Carlo Purther, who made the student agree not to contact Kennedy. After that, Kennedy reported the student was causing him to suffer from painful Tourette tics, although the student had not spoken to him.
On June 12, 2015, two days after school ended, Kennedy wrote a suicide note and poisoned himself with Benadryl and Zoloft.
The note
Kennedy mentioned the student he reported in his suicide note, Champion Newspapers reported, alleging that the student would look at Kennedy until he noticed and then turn to his friends and say that God hates (a word redacted by the LeRoy family), according to Champion Newspapers.
Kennedy had requested his family share his letter, and that “Maybe my death will make people realize that words can hurt as much, if not more, than physical blows,” Champion Newspapers reported.
Ruling
The appeals court agreed with the trial court and the defendants that Section 44808 of the California Education Code rules that schools are not liable for any student if they are not on school property, unless the school was transporting the student themselves.
Associate Justice Art McKinster presided, Associate Justice Carol Codrington wrote the ruling, and Associate Justice Richard Fields agreed.
Sagi Schwartzberg of Schwartzberg & Luther APC represented the LeRoys, and Susan Bech and Lisa Todd of Thompson & Colegate represented the school district and its employees.
