SALT LAKE CITY (CN) - Parents say their son killed himself because his school district did nothing to stop his classmates' bullying and taunts that he was a "'fag, and 'queer' and calling him 'gay.'"
Bradd and Edna Hancock sued the North Sanpete School District and School Board, the Sanpete County Sheriff, and school administrators, in Federal Court.
The Hancocks say that throughout middle school and high school the district failed to supervise and protect their son, whom they identify only as J.H.
Students began harassing J.H. on buses and in the halls of North Sanpete Middle School, "calling him names like 'fag' and 'queer' and calling him 'gay,'" according to the complaint.
"At one point, in the eighth grade, [a student] pushed J.H. up against the wall and physically assaulted him," the complaint states.
Sanpete is a rural county, smack dab in the middle of the state. Its county seat is Manti (pop. 3,276) and its largest city is Ephraim (pop. 6,135). The county's population density is 14 people per square mile.
After the first assault in middle school, school security cameras captured another assault on their son, the parents say, but principal Randy Shelley refused to release the footage.
Shelley, a defendant, "indicated to Bradd [Hancock] that he did not care what happened in the future between the boys because if there was another incident involving J.H. - then J.H. would be expelled," according to the complaint.
The parents add: "The middle school's response, and particularly defendant Shelley's response, was catastrophic for J.H. because J.H. now had no way out of the situation or to escape the bullying," the complaint states.
The parents say a school counselor told them that the middle school was "trying to sweep the incident under the rug," but "that if she shed truth on the allegations she would be terminated."
The harassment continued. A student allegedly grabbed a towel from J.H. in the middle school showers, "poked J.H. several times in the penis" and urinated on the towel, the complaint states.
The parents say the bullying from three students - identified in the complaint by their initials - continued for the next 1½ years, "and the school district did not take any significant measures to stop the bullying and harassment."
"The bullying by this group of students and the school district's ineptitude in handling matter led to J.H. having a mental breakdown and being put in detention," and "ultimately led to J.H. being put on suicide watch," the parents say.
"J.H. feared for his mental and physical safety each time he went to school and the school district was indifferent to these experiences and allowed them to continue."
When their son got to North Sanpete High School, the harassment "substantially increased."
"In the ninth grade, C.B. substantially increased his harassment of J.H. C.B. threatened J.H. on several occasions, on school grounds, that C.B. was 'going to kill' J.H. and that J.H. 'should plan on being killed,'" the complaint states.
The continuous bullying and "the school district's complete failure" to stop it caused their son to be unable to sleep, "increasingly agitated" and "fearful for his life," the parents say.