Associated Press – Wed, Apr 18, 2012
RAMSEY, N.J. (AP) — A New Jersey school district has agreed to
pay $4.2 million to settle a lawsuit by a middle school student who was paralyzed when a
known bully punched him in the abdomen.
The settlement
between the Ramsey school
district and the family of Sawyer Rosenstein, who had complained to the
district about being bullied, was worked out over the past two months but not
made public until last week.
The family's lawsuit alleged school officials knew or should have known the
boy's attacker had violent tendencies and failed to comply with a state
anti-bullying law, said the Rosensteins' attorney, Jeffrey Youngman. The boy had punched another
student in the face on a school bus a year earlier, but the school kept no
record of it or other attacks and the attacker was not subjected to escalating
discipline, the suit said.
Three months before being punched, Rosenstein, then 12, emailed school officials to
report he was being bullied and to ask for help.
"I would like to let you know that the bullying has increased," he
wrote to his guidance counselor at the Eric Smith Middle School. "I would like to
figure out some coping mechanisms to deal with these situations, and I would
just like to put this on file so if something happens again, we can show that
there was past bullying situations."
Sawyer was punched in the abdomen at school on May 16, 2006, dropping him to
his knees. When he came home that day he complained of pain in his back but
otherwise felt fine, his father, Joel Rosenstein, told The Record of Woodland
Park.
Two days later, the seventh-grader let out a scream in his bedroom.
"We picked him up and called an ambulance," the father told the
newspaper. "He hasn't walked since."
The blow had caused a clot in a major artery that supplies blood to his
spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down from what his attorney
described as an "incredibly rare" injury.
The Ramsey Board of Education released a statement Wednesday denying any
wrongdoing and saying that it was the district's insurance carriers that
decided to enter into the settlement and will pay it out.
"The district's character education and
harassment/intimidation/bullying initiatives and reporting practices are
leading edge," the statement said. "All programs in this area far exceed
all of the criteria established by the state of New Jersey."
Both Youngman
and the board said the settlement did not include any admission of liability or
fault on the part of the district.
Sawyer Rosenstein, now an 18-year-old freshman majoring in communication at
Syracuse University, told The Associated Press that he decided to talk about
the case to let others who are bullied know that they can recover and to let
would-be bullies know that violence can have serious consequences.
"I think I became something greater than I ever could have become
without it," he said.
After he was paralyzed, he gave up his fledgling acting career and started
attending a camp where he learned about space. He later started a
space-oriented podcast and attended last year's final space shuttle launch with
a media credential, which inspired him to study communication.
Youngman told The Associated Press "there is never enough money in the
world that could compensate someone who is paralyzed."
But Youngman said Rosenstein has refused to "make this a story of 'woe
is me.'"
"It is a story of triumph and moving on," he said.
The Rosensteins also settled a claim against the boy who attacked their son.
Youngman said the terms were confidential.
New Jersey enacted a tough new anti-bullying law in 2011. Youngman said such
laws are effective only if they are enforced and adequately funded.
