Sad story. What is the school's responsibility?
Mentor parents of boy who killed himself hold high school liableParents contend officials allowed bullying, name calling
Friday, April 03, 2009
Peter Krouse
Plain Dealer Reporter
Eric Mohat's parents believe bullies drove their son to kill himself, and contend in a lawsuit that Mentor school officials simply let it happen.
Eric, 17, committed suicide in 2007. William and Janis Mohat filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court last month in which they claim their son endured incessant harassment from other Mentor High School students, including taunts of "gay," "fag" and "queer."
They also claim in the suit that school officials knew or should have known about the torment their son endured.
Mentor school officials issued a news release stating they could not comment on the lawsuit.
"Mentor Public Schools takes all claims of bullying and harassment seriously and continues to train staff and students using a robust anti-bullying program, implemented in all 14 schools," the release stated.
"This program provides research-driven strategies for preventing bullying at the individual, classroom and school building levels."
The day Eric killed himself, a student told him in front of other students, and possibly teacher Thomas Horvath, "Why don't you go home and shoot yourself? No one would miss you," according to the lawsuit.
That same day, at least one administrator saw Eric crying in the hall, but made no effort to find out why or to help, according to the lawsuit.
Eric, a tall, skinny kid who liked his nickname "twiggy," went home, grabbed his father's registered handgun and shot himself in his bedroom. His older sister found him.
The suit claims school administrators were indifferent to the conditions that led to Eric's death, which included being pushed and elbowed in the hallway. It also claims bullying and harassment contributed to previous suicides of two other students in Eric's grade. A fourth classmate committed suicide a little later, said Ken Myers, lawyer for the Mohats.
Eric wrote about what he was going through on MySpace, which is monitored by school officials, according to the lawsuit.
The Mohats' suit names Horvath, as well as school district Superintendent Jacqueline Hoynes and Mentor High School Principal Joseph Spiccia.
"They're not doing this to get rich. They're doing this to bring attention to this problem and to bring accountability to the school district," Myers said.
Any monetary award would be used for something like anti-bullying training for schools or a scholarship in Eric's name, Myers said.
Janis Mohat said Eric was a gentle person and an accomplished pianist. He was taught at home to never fight, even in self-defense.
She told him the best way to deal with people harassing him was to ignore them. Eventually, they would go away.
"Well, they didn't," she said. "Apparently I was wrong."
Janis Mohat said Eric told her six days before he killed himself that Horvath had caught the bullies and that everything was OK. She now suspects her son's tormentors may have responded by becoming more vicious.
Most of the sexual taunts directed toward Eric occurred in Horvath's math class, Myers said. "The people who were calling him those names were the jocks," he said.
Eric had friends who, like him, were interested in music and theater. But he also was very sensitive about how others felt about him, Myers said.
"And that may ultimately have been part of his downfall, that he took a lot of these things to heart that kids said about him and to him," Myers said.
Eric may have come off as effeminate because he hung out with the theater crowd and wore bright clothing, Myers said. Janis Mohat said her son was not gay and described himself as "heterosexual but terminally single."
Bully-induced suicides are on the rise, said Sue Tucker, community outreach director for the Summit County Domestic Relations Court, while the rate of adolescent suicide in general has tripled since the 1960s.
Tucker has observed an increase in the "nastiness and viciousness" of the taunting, among both boys and girls, over the past five years.
Some schools do a better job than others when it comes to controlling bullying, but one area where most need improvement is in helping the victims develop emotional defense skills, she said.
William Mohat, who works as an electrical engineer in Cleveland, wants Mentor schools to require that any report of bullying be written up and the parents notified in writing or called within 24 hours.
He also wants mandatory followup to bullying incidents where there are credible witnesses, with perpetrators receiving progressively harsher punishments resulting in expulsion on a third strike.
If the school system adopts such regulations, William Mohat said, he and his wife would drop their suit.
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