A New Jersey school district has been ordered to pay a $9.1 million settlement to the family of Mallory Grossman, a 12-year-old student who died by suicide in 2017 after facing nearly a year of bullying at a Rockaway Township school.
According to Fox News Digital, Dianne and Seth Grossman filed a wrongful death lawsuit in 2018, asserting that despite “numerous communications” with Copeland Middle School officials about their daughter’s bullying, the school administration’s inaction led to her death.
The settlement, announced Wednesday, according to USA Today, represents the largest payout within the state, in connection with a lawsuit dealing with bullying issues. the family’s lawyer, Bruce Nagel, said.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, Mallory committed suicide on June 14, 2017, after enduring “ongoing and systematic bullying” while enrolled at the school.
Her parents, Dianne and Seth Grossman, subsequently filed a suit against the Rockaway Township Board of Education, along with its staff members, a little over a year after the incident occurred.
Court documents revealed that the plaintiffs alleged that on at least 14 different occasions, Molly was verbally attacked by students at the school. The school’s staff members didn’t intervene and didn’t take the proper measures to stop it.
Examples submitted to the court included one text from a student that read, “You have no friends,” sent to Mallory. The same student later asked Mallory, while in front of a group of other students, when she planned to kill herself.
When Mallory sat alone during school lunches, she was “ostracized” so much that she began eating lunch in the guidance counselor’s office.
Dianne said she watched her daughter’s grades fall as she began losing interest in things she once enjoyed, even dropping out of the choir, something she once loved, in an attempt to avoid bullies. Dianne said she pleaded relentlessly for a change at the school but nothing happened.
On Wednesday, Diane said she and her husband are satisfied with the settlement and “ready to put this part behind us and move forward, continuing to lend our voice to the epidemic that is stealing our children’s future.”
Meanwhile, following the incident, New Jersey enacted Mallory’s Law in 2002. The law requires that schools in the state must report instances of bullying and act on them to ensure the safety of all children.
Mallory’s parents also founded Mallory’s Army, a nonprofit organization dedicated to educating parents and school administrators about the dangers of bullying.
The documentary “Mallory,” produced by the victim’s family, was released in 2020.
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[Feature Photo: Family Handout]
