N.J. orders Toms River schools to pay ex-student over harassment

The Toms River Board of Education has been ordered to pay a former student $68,000 for failing to take reasonable actions to stop other students from harassing him because of their perceptions of his sexual orientation, the New Jersey Attorney General's Office announced Thursday.

The award includes compensation for pain and suffering, plus interest, in the landmark case that began more than a decade ago and at one point was heard by the state Supreme Court.

Despite a 2007 decision by the high court remanding the matter to the state, the school district's attorney said officials might challenge the state's order, a decision likely to come later this month.

"They paid particular attention to this boy," said Toms River lawyer Thomas Monahan. "They did not just ignore him."

Craig T. Sashihara, director of the Division on Civil Rights of the state Attorney General's Office, said in a statement that the district's use of discipline and counseling failed to properly protect the student, identified in court records as "L.W."

"The law does not require school districts to shelter their students from every single instance of peer harassment," Sashihara said. "It merely asks each school district to take reasonable measures to protect those under its watch. In the case of L.W., that was not done."

In March 1999, the student and his mother filed a complaint with the Division on Civil Rights. They alleged that the district failed to respond effectively when students repeatedly bullied him because of his perceived homosexuality.

Monahan said that school officials counseled students for a first offense and issued detentions to those who continued to harass L.W., and that at least two students were suspended for a physical attack.

"It's not a good thing, what happened with this boy," Monahan said. "It's not the way life should be."

According to court records, the harassment began in elementary school, continued in middle school, and escalated in high school.

There is no dispute that the harassment existed or that school administrators responded. The points of contention are whether officials responded quickly enough and adequately.

In 2007, the state Supreme Court ruled that school districts must protect students from sexual harassment and abuse.

"Students in the classroom are entitled to no less protection from unlawful discrimination and harassment than their adult counterparts in the workplace," Chief Justice James R. Zazzali wrote in the high court decision.

Justices remanded the case back to the state for expert opinion on whether Toms River officials responded appropriately.

This week's ruling is the latest decision against the district.

Monahan said he did not know whether the school district would appeal again.

At the time, he said, administrators offered bus transportation and supervision on school grounds, but L.W. was targeted off campus, where school authorities have no control.

Court records detail taunting through the years, including several physical attacks and one in which a student grabbed the victim's genitals, made sexual gestures, and asked the victim whether he liked it.

L.W. eventually transferred to another high school at the district's expense. Monahan said administrators always responded and asked, "What more could they have done?"

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