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School districts nationwide face lawsuits over abuse
February 28, 2010 -- A Google news search reveals an emerging and challenging trend for school administrators: parents taking schools to court for failure to prevent the bullying of their children.

Here are just two stories, from Ohio and Pennsylvania:
A federal lawsuit has alleged that an 11 year-old girl was bullied so much by classmates at a Pittsburgh middle school that she became anorexic. The lawsuit alleges that the principle and other school staff knew about the bullying and didn’t do enough to stop it. The girl was allegedly taunted about her weight and harassed daily during lunch periods about what she was eating. The girl dropped down to 96 pounds, was hospitalized, and had to finish her seventh grade year from home.

Another federal lawsuit alleges that bullying was the cause of 17 year-old Eric Mohat’s suicide in Mentor, Ohio. Eric was bullied not because he was fat, like “B.G.”, but because he was too skinny. His appearance and participation in theater and music led classmates to conclude that he was gay. Nine weeks before the end of the school year, Eric shot himself in the head with his father’s revolver.

These lawsuits have drawn the attention of school districts nationwide, as they portend legal penalties for not creating a safe environment for children to learn.