A years-long campaign of bullying left a Long Island cheerleader suicidal — even taunted for the sudden death of a horse she bought for emotional support, according to a $6 million lawsuit.
The accuser, a 16-year-old girl identified only as AS, said she suffered episodes of bullying spanning four years at Smithtown Central School District schools — including a brutal attack at a party that was recorded and shared online, according to the lawsuit. filed late last month in Suffolk County.
The alleged victim’s parents were so distraught that they tried to sell their house to leave the area — and bought him a horse as an “emotional support animal,” the suit says.
However, that backfired when “the horse was tragically killed in front of her by a veterinarian,” the suit says, without explanation — after which the bully began calling her “horse girl,” the suit alleges.
Despite video evidence of the attack, the alleged mean girls suffered no consequences — perhaps because the girls who started it were key members of the cheerleading squad, according to Kenneth Mollins, a lawyer for the accuser’s family.
“They act as if this kid is a gift to the school,” he told The Post of one of the main alleged bullies, who enjoyed interviews with local newspapers about the team’s success.
Meanwhile, the bullied girl “had enough and she even threatened to kill herself if they forced her to go back to school,” her lawyer said. “He’ll be begging not to be sent back there.”
The Post did not identify the victims or the alleged bullies because they were minors.
AS’s ordeal began during the 2018-2019 school year, where another girl — whom The Post identified as AM — allegedly “constantly bullied” her during recess and lunch, the lawsuit alleges.
The victim’s family was asked to file a complaint under the Dignity For All Students Act, but an investigation found the allegations “unfounded,” according to the lawsuit.
Although the outbreak separated victims and bullies, they reunited in 2021 at Smithtown West High School’s varsity cheerleading squad, where AM allegedly harassed her with a handful of other girls, the lawsuit says.
During a house party the following summer, one of the girls on the cheerleading squad allegedly taunted the US, yelling in his face that he had kissed someone she liked, the suit alleges.
Officials at Smithtown West High School allegedly did nothing to help the victim, according to the lawsuit.Smithtown High School West
Another cheerleader then pulled her to the ground by her hair as others also punched and kicked her.
“A camera phone was recording the incident the entire time, it was premeditated,” the lawsuit says, noting how the accuser’s family eventually filed a police report about it after already informing several school officials about the video as evidence.
The accuser later quit the university’s cheerleading squad because of the initial bully, AM – who was allowed to remain there, the lawsuit said.
“The school obviously didn’t know how to handle this and never did anything to help this girl,” said Mollins, a family lawyer who handles multiple bullying cases on Long Island.
“The brilliant planning of the school is to have the bullies enter the school through the side door and the victim through the front door of the building, that way they will not interact and there will be no problems. But that’s clearly not the case,” Mollins said.
Officials at Smithtown West High School did little to help the victims, the lawsuit alleges.
And when the victim’s family became so desperate that they tried to keep him out of school, Mollins said the district threatened to call Children’s Services on them and force the US back.
With AS back in Smithtown West, he was once again at the mercy of bullies, who allegedly threw food and insults at him during a homecoming celebration last October.
Her parents bought the “emotional support” horse in November, the suit said, without explaining why or how it was “tragically killed in front of her by a veterinarian” three months later.
The teenager threatened to take his own life, and was later allowed to finish the year of home schooling, but that wasn’t the end of the bullying, according to the lawsuit and his family’s attorney.
The US had to return to the school for the last time in May, where the bully allegedly met her and recorded another attack. The school district again found that the claim was “unfounded,” the lawsuit said.
Mollins said this is not unusual, with several schools in Suffolk County allegedly using similar strategies when it comes to such extreme cases of bullying.
“Working on these cases, it seems that the school does not have the proper resources
The district declined to comment on the lawsuit, but said it takes all allegations of bullying “very seriously” and investigates each case.
Attempts to reach the girl identified as the initial bully were not immediately successful Monday.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
