Sued by dad over his 13-year-old daughter's suicide after bullying, school denies responsibility
Already distraught after his 13-year-old daughter committed suicide last December, Jason Lamberth says subsequent conduct of Nevada school officials is what drove him to file suit.
Hailee Lamberth’s suicide note blamed bullying by a specific student, but the Clark County School District denied any report of bullying until the family found one in her student file, after a tipster pointed them to it. Meanwhile, a former principal at the White Middle School in Henderson made an unfounded allegation in an internal document that Jason Lamberth had beaten his daughter, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.
“Every time (district officials) spoke, they were lying to my face,” Jason Lamberth said. “Then, when I heard that claim, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I never even spanked Hailee. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
The federal lawsuit the family filed in October over Hailee’s death includes a defamation count. It also alleges district officials failed to inform the girl’s family, as they were required to do by state law, that she was being bullied.
In a motion to dismiss filed Thursday, the school district says any argument that the family could have prevented Hailee’s death if they had known she was being bullied is “pure speculation.” The filing blames the straight-A student’s own decision to commit suicide, which the district characterizes as a criminal act, for her death, the Review-Journal reports.
Suicide is “analogous to, if not included within, the crime of murder,” the motion says, and “Hailee’s voluntary suicide is the superseding cause of her death and it therefore cuts off all liability for the nonfeasance alleged.”
Hailee “made the deliberate decision to (1) prepare a suicide note; (2) obtain the firearm, (3) prepare the gun to fire; and (4) pull the trigger,” the filing says.
The girl’s father has a different perspective.
“I can’t tell you how many times in my mind I’ve played out the conversations I would have had with Hailee about the severe bullying she was enduring,” he told the newspaper. “Whether or not she would have changed schools or changed some of her classes … those conversations will never happen, and Hailee will never get to experience monumental life milestones because school administrators broke the law and failed to notify us of the reported incidents.”
See also:
ABAJournal.com: “School district wins civil case after arguing that girl, 14, could consent to sex with teacher”
ABAJournal.com: “Lawyer taken off 14 cases after furor over trial claim that teen consented to sex with teacher”
