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| Parents sue Florida school district over bullied son's suicide | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Oct 6 2015, 09:06 AM (103 Views) | |
| Guest | Oct 6 2015, 09:06 AM Post #1 |
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Parents sue Florida school district over bullied son's suicide A lawsuit filed Monday against the a Florida school district alleges that teachers and administrators didn't do enough to prevent bullying that led to a 14-year-old boy's suicide last year. Lamar Hawkins III, of Sanford, killed himself Sept. 10, 2014 with his father's gun in a bathroom stall at Greenwood Lakes Middle School in Lake Mary. Attorney Matt Morgan said Lamar went missing for hours and school officials didn't look for him— even after another student found a spent gun shell casing in the school's bathroom and reported it to a teacher. Lamar's family reported him missing after his mother went to the school to pick him up about 5 p.m. and he was nowhere to be found. Deputies found Lamar in the bathroom with a gunshot wound to his head about 11 p.m. Lamar's family is suing the Seminole County School Board, alleging negligent supervision, negligent failure to adequately discipline bullies and negligent failure to supervise and account for Lamar's absence before his death. "We know that just days before he took his life at school that he was literally slapped out of his chair during an altercation," Morgan said at a news conference Monday. "He took his life at school to send a message, and the message was clear," Morgan continued: "'These bullies drove me to this point so I will commit this act on school grounds so that they know they did this to me.'" Walt Griffin, the superintendent of Seminole County Public Schools, would not comment on the lawsuit. After Lamar's death, investigators said the gun the eighth grader used to shoot himself belonged to his father, Lamar Hawkins Sr. A report released by the Seminole County Sheriff's Office in February said the boy's father, Lamar Hawkins Sr., kept the 40-caliber pistol locked in a gun box in his bedroom closet. The day Lamar shot himself, his father mistakenly grabbed his wife's keys when he left the house — leaving the key to the gun box at home. Lamar didn't leave behind a suicide note. According to the Sanford family, years of bullying led to Lamar's suicide. Because health complications stunted his growth — he was about 4 feet, 5 inches — Lamar was an easy target for bullies. At the time, Seminole County Public School officials referenced the School Board's comprehensive bullying policy which, they said, is fully enforced in all of their schools. The School Board's policy manual defines bullying and cyberbullying as unwanted and repeated written, verbal or physical behavior that is systematically used to inflict physical hurt or distress on another student. After dozens of interviews, Sheriff's Office investigators found that Lamar and his twin sister were picked on and called names but that they were not physically harmed except for a lunchroom fight two days before Lamar's suicide involving Lamar and another student. Morgan said he received hundreds of phone calls from parents in the area and nationally, complaining that their children have also been bullied at school. He said a few parents of students at Greenwood Lakes Middle School also called about bullying. "It appeared to me that there is a big problem at that school," Morgan said about Greenwood Lakes Middle School. That was my opinion as a result of the conversations I had with these parents." http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/parents-sue-florida-school-district-over-bullied-sons-suicide/ar-AAf8mBp?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=mailsignout |
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| Guest | Oct 6 2015, 09:28 AM Post #2 |
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Why are today's kids so suicidal, or they think that suicide is the solution? |
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| Tybee | Oct 6 2015, 09:38 AM Post #3 |
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Probably because of the complete degradation in child rearing practices & skills by so many parents these days. When I look at so many couples I've known who had children I realize that if there was a God most of them would have been born sterile. |
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| Erna | Oct 6 2015, 10:18 AM Post #4 |
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We sort of attempted self-euthanasia(tuinals) at that age but thankfully we were rescued in time! |
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| Guest | Oct 6 2015, 10:27 AM Post #5 |
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It was their choice to have kids...how do you think that parenting skills and child rearing have degraded these days? |
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| Tybee | Oct 6 2015, 10:47 AM Post #6 |
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Too many parents sit back and let their kids raise themselves. And many of the parents who do claim to be very involved in their kid's lives don't discipline their kids properly IMO. So many kids these days know if they break the rules all it's going to mean is getting a "talking to", not any real punishment because that's too much work on their idiot parents. The days when kids got a spanking (not a beating) when they misbehaved badly enough was the beginning of the the downward trend of child rearing. |
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| Guest | Oct 6 2015, 11:27 AM Post #7 |
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So should kids get beat instead of spanked? Or punished in other ways if they misbehave? I have a friend that has two daughters and a step-son and she threatens them by taking away their phones/tablets, etc. that they're constantly on all the time, or she does take them away. I would not doubt that she probably would spank one of them if they got out of hand especially her young step-son. |
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| Guest | Oct 6 2015, 12:03 PM Post #8 |
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Where do i start. It seems everyone in this article is wanting to shift the blame, starting with the father about his keys and his son getting his gun. The father doesn't know why his son did it at school, maybe he didn't want to mess up the carpet at home, who knows, the one that does is dead. He wasn't so upset he left a note, naming a reason. He was at the age, hormones changing, school courses changing, teenage years are not that wonderful, they are a rollercoaster ride. It's a shame he took this way out but no more than the other teens that do the same thing. Many of today's parents don't want to discipline, but it's necessary and starting at a young age. Many people remove everything from coffee tables and end tables. IMO that's wrong, put something on them that won't hurt the child when he/she grabs it and when they do smack their little hand till they get a tear or two. Tell them no and mean it. Parents are going to want to take the children out to visit friends and the friends may have very nice chotskies out. Many parent visit and then don't really pay attention to their child, then have a fit if the friend corrects their child. As far as this teenager goes, how much did his twin sister know about his taking the gun from home? There are so many questions, stop playing the blame game. |
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| Guest | Oct 6 2015, 01:13 PM Post #9 |
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Heh what you said about removing things from coffee tables or end tables reminds me of how my friend that is gay who adopted two sons with his husband at the time how when they were younger they came to visit my mother and one of them tried picking touching a framed stained glass pannel she had gotten as a gift years ago and my friend yelled at his son that it was rude to touch other people's things in their houses and smacked his hand lightly. |
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| Tybee | Oct 6 2015, 01:21 PM Post #10 |
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I wrote that completely wrong. I should have said "when the days kids got a spanking (not a beating) when they misbehaved badly enough ended it was the beginning of the downward trend of child rearing. There's a big difference between a spanking and a beating. No child should be beaten, ever. But a smack on the behind can solve a world of problems with most kids. |
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| Apple pie MizMaxMizanin. | Oct 6 2015, 03:13 PM Post #11 |
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Because the digital age promoted misery and suicidal thoughts and the younger generation read this depressing stuff then start to feel the exact same way. |
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| Erna | Oct 6 2015, 03:29 PM Post #12 |
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drugs drugs drugs |
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| Guest | Oct 6 2015, 03:54 PM Post #13 |
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What if he was not on any? |
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| Guest | Oct 6 2015, 04:13 PM Post #14 |
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Bullying is child abuse, and there should be some serious action taken to remove that child from the situation. Put in a safe place and educated. Their lives are in danger. Unfortunately (and dismissively) it's brushed off as "kid stuff". There's also the idea that some healthy tough love- administered by their peers- will slap some sense into them, "straighten them out". |
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