The parents of a girl who died by suicide at age 12 have reached a $9.1 million settlement in a wrongful-death lawsuit against the local school district, their lawyer says.
Bruce Nagle, the attorney for Seth and Dianne Grossman, whose daughter Mallory died in 2017, said the settlement is the “largest settlement of a bullying case in New Jersey history.”
“This settlement is one more step in dealing with this avoidable tragedy and I hope that it sends a clear message to all schools around the country that our children must be protected from the horrors of school bullying,” Nagle said in a statement Wednesday announcing the settlement.
The school district, the Rockaway Township School District in Morris County, New Jersey, declined to comment to ABC News.
The Grossman family filed their lawsuit against the school district in 2018, claiming officials did nothing to stop what they said was ongoing and systemic bullying of Mallory.
In court documents, the Grossmans said school officials had several meetings with them and Mallory without taking any action against the alleged bullies, including on the day she took her life.
In that meeting, the parents alleged school officials advised them not to file a formal complaint. They say that irretrievably humiliated Mallory and placed the bulk of the responsibility on their daughter.
The Grossmans also alleged in the complaint that Mallory’s classmates constantly kicked the sixth grader’s chair while she was in class, and alleged that one student asked her in front of others when she was going to kill herself.
“We used to say, ‘Go jump in the lake.’ That was a funny thing to say. Now our kids are saying, ‘Go kill yourself,'” Dianne Grossman said at the time the lawsuit was announced in June 2018. “We’ve got to recognize that that type of language has to be intolerable.”
She continued, “The poor behavior and the poor decisions that these children make, it’s still continuing. These children have not changed.”
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Dianne Grossman described her daughter as a gymnast and a cheerleader who “loved the outdoors.”
“She was a quiet child,” she said of Mallory. “She was sensitive.”
In the wake of Mallory’s death, the Grossmans launched a nonprofit organization, Mallory’s Army Foundation, to support bullying prevention.
“Putting an end to bullying is not something achieved by individuals operating alone, it is done by a community banding together,” the foundation states on its website. “We achieve this by unifying students, teachers, kids, and adults alike, against bullying and anyone who seeks to make less of, or cause harm to others.”
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The Grossmans were also active in supporting the enactment of legislation known as Mallory’s Law, which amended New Jersey’s anti-bullying law to include stricter mandates for bullying prevention in schools.
As many as 20% of students ages 12 to 18 in the United States experience bullying, according to data shared by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
If you or someone you know are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org or dial the current toll free number 800-273-8255 [TALK].
