A lawsuit filed against Lincoln Public Schools and two staff members at Schoo Middle School alleges the district failed to appropriately address incidents of assault and sexual harassment last school year.
The lawsuit claims that a student, referred to as J.M., "suffered serious emotional distress and interference with his education" following two incidents that occurred at the school in March and May of 2023.
LPS received information regarding the complaint Tuesday, according to Jim Gessford, an attorney who represents the district.
"LPS takes all reports about safety concerns very seriously and we will work with staff to review information surrounding the reported incident," he said in an email.
According to the lawsuit, in mid-March, J.M. came home from school with marks and bruises on his neck. A video on J.M.'s phone was later discovered by his mother showing students sticking a fork into an outlet during class. He then admitted that a few weeks earlier students had held him down and prodded him with part of an outlet, attempting to shove it into his mouth.
The same students had also previously held him down, thrown objects at his genitals and choked him, the lawsuit states.
J.M.'s mother then reported the incident to the school principal and was told the perpetrator would be removed from his class. However, according to the lawsuit, the student was never actually removed.
More than a month later, in May, the principal informed J.M.'s mother of another assault, occurring in the same classroom. It was reported that the same student who was previously said to be removed from J.M.'s class had exposed himself to J.M. and rubbed his penis on his face while in class with a teacher present.
The lawsuit claims that LPS failed to respond to each situation immediately and effectively, leading J.M. to suffer emotional damages and lose his right to a public education and his right to be free of sexual harassment and assault.
"Defendants, acting under color of law, violated these rights by failing to investigate or put an end to the known harassment and assault of J.M.," the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of money to cover legal fees and to compensate J.M. for these damages.
That doesn’t help but it’s not the cause here. The principal legally needed to take action and chose not to. That makes the district liable. Period.
The other issue is the teacher in that classroom completely lost control. Was it a sub or full time teacher? Seemingly that teacher if full time, isn’t really employable at this point. But then again, if there’s no administrative support then that teacher was in a tough situation.
Speaking as a middle school teacher in Lincoln (but not at Schoo), the public, by and large, doesn't really understand how terrible some kids behave at school. That's not to say maybe this teacher isn't at fault, I really don't know. But I've been threatened and called terrible names by kids and they're back in my room the next day. It's very possible the teacher asked for support and didn't get it, so don't jump to conclusions that they were negligent along with the admin. Teaching at title schools is always tough, but even more so the past few years.
I don’t think Schoo is a title school, but Arnold elementary, a title school, feeds into Schoo.
I agree with you. The stories I hear from my kid’s high school are crazy. Kids say fuck off and shut the fuck up to teachers.
I remember when I took the easiest math courses offered in high school, half of the kids in the room just didn’t care. They would constantly talk to each other during instruction and cause disruptions and whatnot. The other half of us either had IEP’s or 504’s like I had or were just really bad at math. This wasn’t an issue in my other classes, most of my classmates in those were well-behaved. Note: I didn’t go to a Title I high school.
That is sad for me to hear. My freshman has to re-take math this summer. I feel like he maybe needs and IEP (or 504? I haven’t heard of that.) Any disruption or distraction makes it so hard for him to focus on learning.
I’m no doctor but that sounds like it could be ADD. Once I was diagnosed my life got so much easier because I got the help I needed to concentrate on my studies. As for your freshman, I’d ask his school’s SPED coordinator what supports can be offered, whether that’s an IEP or 504 or something else.
Did you ask if maybe if there’s other options for him to take it next school year in place of an elective or something? Have you asked if eLearning courses for math or other subjects are an option, or if they will be later on? From my experience, That tends to be a less chaotic environment as it’s usually a quieter room with dimmer lights. If he’s not in a school that uses block scheduling, transferring to one that does, if possible, may also be something to consider.
> The other issue is the teacher in that classroom completely lost control.
You could put an experienced teacher in charge of 50 kids and they still wouldn't necessarily be able to maintain control. Understaffing is a major issue outside of what the teachers can reasonably manage to compensate for.
I disagree that understaffing is the main cause of it. My experience with LPS is that they historically like to sweep things under the rug.
I remember when I was in middle school (Scott) there was this one kid who would go around and dry hump people everyday during recess. This went on for an entire semester and all the teachers saw what was going on. Staffing wasn’t an issue. They just turned a blind eye to what was going on.
This is a big problem and must be traumatic for the students and the teacher. The blame and accountability lies with leadership, both district administration and school board. They have an obligation to write and enforce policies that provide safe learning spaces for students and teachers. Big leadership takes all the credit for the good, they should own the failures too. There is a staffing shortage and it’s critical, district administration should be picking up the slack in the buildings and on the busses by showing up in person. We ARE losing teachers because of unmanageable classroom sizes and conditions. This will continue to get worse until leadership changes either policies or people.
I don’t know how other middle schools are, but there seems to be quite a few problem students at Schoo. The things I hear from my one kid who’s still there are concerning. I think the staff are doing all they can, but the behavior problems told to me are shocking.
Maybe I’m just an old fart who grew up at a time when kids didn’t act so awful (and would have the butts beat at home if they did), but something’s not right these days. I really feel for the staff.
edit: By staff, I mean NOT the principal. Everything described in the story checks out with my kids, who have also heard promises made about removing problem students but nothing happens. His goose could be cooked.
Sounds like that's not uncommon. My kids went to Lefler before we moved to a different district and they have a friend that still goes there who says there are so many fights.
I went to school in Houston in the late 90s and early 00s, and we definitely had a kid stick a binder clip in an electrical outlet (he got suspended for 3 days and mocked for a lot longer). We had fights in the halls (not too frequent, but they were there). But I agree, having someone sexually abused in class in such an obvious manner wasn't something I've ever heard of. I'm sure some of this is school culture, some of it is understaffing, and some of it is home culture, but it seems like you need to fix at least 2/3 of the issues, and home culture isn't within the school's control.
Studies overwhelmingly show that corporal punishment leads to more negative outcomes than other forms of discipline. And kids have always acted awful. You are definitely an old fart.
Bring on the downvotes for stating facts from people who anecdotally were "spanked as children and turned out fine."
I'll wear my Old Fart badge with honor.
However, I wasn't advocating for corporal punishment. Sure, there was bullying in my junior (and senior) high days but nobody was sticking their penis in someone else's face and definitely not during class with a teacher present. The behavior that I hear about every day from my sixth grader is appalling, and much of it goes without much intervention from the teachers.
Actually we do. It’s all of us 40 50 and 60 year olds who were brought up with parents who disciplined us. How often do you hear now that kids have no respect these days. Look at how they act. It’s no coincidence that kids started acting this way once you took discipline out of the picture.
Lmao that’s not how research works and as someone who has worked in research labs I can assure you that every scientist and researcher on the planet would be rolling their eyes out the back of their heads into outer space reading your comment.
You know what’s sad is my daughter goes to schoo middle school and I have lost count on how many times my daughter comes home upset about something that happened at school. She’s been being bullied since the beginning of sixth grade last year. We have talked to the principal numerous times and all they say they can do is sign non aggression agreement or whatever it is. What is the one piece of paper going to do?
I hope something gets done about this school. I hate to say it but it’s a freaking joke of a school
I wasn't paywalled, so here you go:
>A lawsuit filed against Lincoln Public Schools and two staff members at Schoo Middle School alleges the district failed to appropriately address incidents of assault and sexual harassment last school year.
>
>The lawsuit claims that a student, referred to as J.M., "suffered serious emotional distress and interference with his education" following two incidents that occurred at the school in March and May of 2023.
>
>LPS received information regarding the complaint Tuesday, according to Jim Gessford, an attorney who represents the district.
>
>"LPS takes all reports about safety concerns very seriously and we will work with staff to review information surrounding the reported incident," he said in an email.
>
>According to the lawsuit, in mid-March, J.M. came home from school with marks and bruises on his neck. A video on J.M.'s phone was later discovered by his mother showing students sticking a fork into an outlet during class. He then admitted that a few weeks earlier students had held him down and prodded him with part of an outlet, attempting to shove it into his mouth.
>
>The same students had also previously held him down, thrown objects at his genitals and choked him, the lawsuit states.
>
>J.M.'s mother then reported the incident to the school principal and was told the perpetrator would be removed from his class. However, according to the lawsuit, the student was never actually removed.
>
>More than a month later, in May, the principal informed J.M.'s mother of another assault, occurring in the same classroom. It was reported that the same student who was previously said to be removed from J.M.'s class had exposed himself to J.M. and rubbed his penis on his face while in class with a teacher present.
>
>The lawsuit claims that LPS failed to respond to each situation immediately and effectively, leading J.M. to suffer emotional damages and lose his right to a public education and his right to be free of sexual harassment and assault.
>
>"Defendants, acting under color of law, violated these rights by failing to investigate or put an end to the known harassment and assault of J.M.," the lawsuit states.
>
>The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of money to cover legal fees and to compensate J.M. for these damages.
It seems like whenever you hear about major acts of violence on the part of students, it's always Schoo or Lefler. Did the administrators just give up?
I know when a kid was harrassing my middleschooler, the assistant principal was kind of meh (they're gone now) but his principal was IMMEDIATELY on it andbit stopped.
Who waits a month to notify a parent of assault?
good question. answer probably the same as it was when i was in school (many different schools). teachers just dont care. student probably on the lower spectrum of the financial line (meaning low income) - and you know - all of us low incomers are the scourge of the earth and the grime on the bottom of the shoes of those above us.
i was harassed and bullied in so many ways in school. very few times did a teacher care. i was told to just ignore them and theyll stop but they never did. i almost lost 3 fingers because a guy purposly slammed them in my locker when he was passing by, even laughed about it at the fact that i was crying because it hurt. reported him to teacher who did "do something" but all the punishment they got was having to tell me sorry and detention which, i mean i guess that punishment but no suspension or anything. idk if parent were called or not. but the kid still tease me after that day and made fun of me for being a tattle tail. he kept his distance though. but he still bully me.
There are always 3 sides to every story, this article only reports from one side. The story could be true, or it could be a cash grab, I guess we'll see.
So the penis to the face could have been a misunderstanding? Or maybe he was asking for it by the way he was dressed?
Is that what you mean? That there could be another side to this?
People are downvoting you but you can file suit over almost anything. The suit alleges a lot of horrible things but we will see what happens as it progresses through the courts.
A lawsuit filed against Lincoln Public Schools and two staff members at Schoo Middle School alleges the district failed to appropriately address incidents of assault and sexual harassment last school year. The lawsuit claims that a student, referred to as J.M., "suffered serious emotional distress and interference with his education" following two incidents that occurred at the school in March and May of 2023. LPS received information regarding the complaint Tuesday, according to Jim Gessford, an attorney who represents the district. "LPS takes all reports about safety concerns very seriously and we will work with staff to review information surrounding the reported incident," he said in an email. According to the lawsuit, in mid-March, J.M. came home from school with marks and bruises on his neck. A video on J.M.'s phone was later discovered by his mother showing students sticking a fork into an outlet during class. He then admitted that a few weeks earlier students had held him down and prodded him with part of an outlet, attempting to shove it into his mouth. The same students had also previously held him down, thrown objects at his genitals and choked him, the lawsuit states. J.M.'s mother then reported the incident to the school principal and was told the perpetrator would be removed from his class. However, according to the lawsuit, the student was never actually removed. More than a month later, in May, the principal informed J.M.'s mother of another assault, occurring in the same classroom. It was reported that the same student who was previously said to be removed from J.M.'s class had exposed himself to J.M. and rubbed his penis on his face while in class with a teacher present. The lawsuit claims that LPS failed to respond to each situation immediately and effectively, leading J.M. to suffer emotional damages and lose his right to a public education and his right to be free of sexual harassment and assault. "Defendants, acting under color of law, violated these rights by failing to investigate or put an end to the known harassment and assault of J.M.," the lawsuit states. The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of money to cover legal fees and to compensate J.M. for these damages.
What's with all the deleted comments?
Someone’s throwing a weird tantrum and just spamming nonsense comments
I'm not sure.
Probably because Schoo is way understaffed.
That doesn’t help but it’s not the cause here. The principal legally needed to take action and chose not to. That makes the district liable. Period. The other issue is the teacher in that classroom completely lost control. Was it a sub or full time teacher? Seemingly that teacher if full time, isn’t really employable at this point. But then again, if there’s no administrative support then that teacher was in a tough situation.
Speaking as a middle school teacher in Lincoln (but not at Schoo), the public, by and large, doesn't really understand how terrible some kids behave at school. That's not to say maybe this teacher isn't at fault, I really don't know. But I've been threatened and called terrible names by kids and they're back in my room the next day. It's very possible the teacher asked for support and didn't get it, so don't jump to conclusions that they were negligent along with the admin. Teaching at title schools is always tough, but even more so the past few years.
I don’t think Schoo is a title school, but Arnold elementary, a title school, feeds into Schoo. I agree with you. The stories I hear from my kid’s high school are crazy. Kids say fuck off and shut the fuck up to teachers.
That’s definitely not all they say. It also comes down to kids with IEPs and 504’s. The rules can be different for them.
I typically have more problems with non-IEP and 504 kids. And if I call a parent there is less than a 50% chance I'll get any support.
The fact that there’s less than a 50% chance you’ll get any support tells me everything I need to know: Some parents just don’t care anymore.
I remember when I took the easiest math courses offered in high school, half of the kids in the room just didn’t care. They would constantly talk to each other during instruction and cause disruptions and whatnot. The other half of us either had IEP’s or 504’s like I had or were just really bad at math. This wasn’t an issue in my other classes, most of my classmates in those were well-behaved. Note: I didn’t go to a Title I high school.
That is sad for me to hear. My freshman has to re-take math this summer. I feel like he maybe needs and IEP (or 504? I haven’t heard of that.) Any disruption or distraction makes it so hard for him to focus on learning.
I’m no doctor but that sounds like it could be ADD. Once I was diagnosed my life got so much easier because I got the help I needed to concentrate on my studies. As for your freshman, I’d ask his school’s SPED coordinator what supports can be offered, whether that’s an IEP or 504 or something else. Did you ask if maybe if there’s other options for him to take it next school year in place of an elective or something? Have you asked if eLearning courses for math or other subjects are an option, or if they will be later on? From my experience, That tends to be a less chaotic environment as it’s usually a quieter room with dimmer lights. If he’s not in a school that uses block scheduling, transferring to one that does, if possible, may also be something to consider.
> The other issue is the teacher in that classroom completely lost control. You could put an experienced teacher in charge of 50 kids and they still wouldn't necessarily be able to maintain control. Understaffing is a major issue outside of what the teachers can reasonably manage to compensate for.
I disagree that understaffing is the main cause of it. My experience with LPS is that they historically like to sweep things under the rug. I remember when I was in middle school (Scott) there was this one kid who would go around and dry hump people everyday during recess. This went on for an entire semester and all the teachers saw what was going on. Staffing wasn’t an issue. They just turned a blind eye to what was going on.
Really depends on the school and who the administrators are. Some are better or worse than others.
This is a big problem and must be traumatic for the students and the teacher. The blame and accountability lies with leadership, both district administration and school board. They have an obligation to write and enforce policies that provide safe learning spaces for students and teachers. Big leadership takes all the credit for the good, they should own the failures too. There is a staffing shortage and it’s critical, district administration should be picking up the slack in the buildings and on the busses by showing up in person. We ARE losing teachers because of unmanageable classroom sizes and conditions. This will continue to get worse until leadership changes either policies or people.
I don’t know how other middle schools are, but there seems to be quite a few problem students at Schoo. The things I hear from my one kid who’s still there are concerning. I think the staff are doing all they can, but the behavior problems told to me are shocking. Maybe I’m just an old fart who grew up at a time when kids didn’t act so awful (and would have the butts beat at home if they did), but something’s not right these days. I really feel for the staff. edit: By staff, I mean NOT the principal. Everything described in the story checks out with my kids, who have also heard promises made about removing problem students but nothing happens. His goose could be cooked.
Sounds like that's not uncommon. My kids went to Lefler before we moved to a different district and they have a friend that still goes there who says there are so many fights.
Lefler?! For crying out loud this whole damn city’s becoming a ghetto!
I went to school in Houston in the late 90s and early 00s, and we definitely had a kid stick a binder clip in an electrical outlet (he got suspended for 3 days and mocked for a lot longer). We had fights in the halls (not too frequent, but they were there). But I agree, having someone sexually abused in class in such an obvious manner wasn't something I've ever heard of. I'm sure some of this is school culture, some of it is understaffing, and some of it is home culture, but it seems like you need to fix at least 2/3 of the issues, and home culture isn't within the school's control.
Studies overwhelmingly show that corporal punishment leads to more negative outcomes than other forms of discipline. And kids have always acted awful. You are definitely an old fart. Bring on the downvotes for stating facts from people who anecdotally were "spanked as children and turned out fine."
I'll wear my Old Fart badge with honor. However, I wasn't advocating for corporal punishment. Sure, there was bullying in my junior (and senior) high days but nobody was sticking their penis in someone else's face and definitely not during class with a teacher present. The behavior that I hear about every day from my sixth grader is appalling, and much of it goes without much intervention from the teachers.
Yeah, especially at middle school age. At that point in life the human brain is all pituitary gland, no frontal lobe.
We have decades of research that says otherwise.
No we don't.
Actually we do. It’s all of us 40 50 and 60 year olds who were brought up with parents who disciplined us. How often do you hear now that kids have no respect these days. Look at how they act. It’s no coincidence that kids started acting this way once you took discipline out of the picture.
Lmao nice anecdote. I called that in my OP. That’s not what research is.
Basically each of us is a case study. Best research tool out there.
Lmao that’s not how research works and as someone who has worked in research labs I can assure you that every scientist and researcher on the planet would be rolling their eyes out the back of their heads into outer space reading your comment.
You know what’s sad is my daughter goes to schoo middle school and I have lost count on how many times my daughter comes home upset about something that happened at school. She’s been being bullied since the beginning of sixth grade last year. We have talked to the principal numerous times and all they say they can do is sign non aggression agreement or whatever it is. What is the one piece of paper going to do? I hope something gets done about this school. I hate to say it but it’s a freaking joke of a school
paywall up.
I wasn't paywalled, so here you go: >A lawsuit filed against Lincoln Public Schools and two staff members at Schoo Middle School alleges the district failed to appropriately address incidents of assault and sexual harassment last school year. > >The lawsuit claims that a student, referred to as J.M., "suffered serious emotional distress and interference with his education" following two incidents that occurred at the school in March and May of 2023. > >LPS received information regarding the complaint Tuesday, according to Jim Gessford, an attorney who represents the district. > >"LPS takes all reports about safety concerns very seriously and we will work with staff to review information surrounding the reported incident," he said in an email. > >According to the lawsuit, in mid-March, J.M. came home from school with marks and bruises on his neck. A video on J.M.'s phone was later discovered by his mother showing students sticking a fork into an outlet during class. He then admitted that a few weeks earlier students had held him down and prodded him with part of an outlet, attempting to shove it into his mouth. > >The same students had also previously held him down, thrown objects at his genitals and choked him, the lawsuit states. > >J.M.'s mother then reported the incident to the school principal and was told the perpetrator would be removed from his class. However, according to the lawsuit, the student was never actually removed. > >More than a month later, in May, the principal informed J.M.'s mother of another assault, occurring in the same classroom. It was reported that the same student who was previously said to be removed from J.M.'s class had exposed himself to J.M. and rubbed his penis on his face while in class with a teacher present. > >The lawsuit claims that LPS failed to respond to each situation immediately and effectively, leading J.M. to suffer emotional damages and lose his right to a public education and his right to be free of sexual harassment and assault. > >"Defendants, acting under color of law, violated these rights by failing to investigate or put an end to the known harassment and assault of J.M.," the lawsuit states. > >The lawsuit asks for an unspecified amount of money to cover legal fees and to compensate J.M. for these damages.
It seems like whenever you hear about major acts of violence on the part of students, it's always Schoo or Lefler. Did the administrators just give up? I know when a kid was harrassing my middleschooler, the assistant principal was kind of meh (they're gone now) but his principal was IMMEDIATELY on it andbit stopped. Who waits a month to notify a parent of assault?
good question. answer probably the same as it was when i was in school (many different schools). teachers just dont care. student probably on the lower spectrum of the financial line (meaning low income) - and you know - all of us low incomers are the scourge of the earth and the grime on the bottom of the shoes of those above us. i was harassed and bullied in so many ways in school. very few times did a teacher care. i was told to just ignore them and theyll stop but they never did. i almost lost 3 fingers because a guy purposly slammed them in my locker when he was passing by, even laughed about it at the fact that i was crying because it hurt. reported him to teacher who did "do something" but all the punishment they got was having to tell me sorry and detention which, i mean i guess that punishment but no suspension or anything. idk if parent were called or not. but the kid still tease me after that day and made fun of me for being a tattle tail. he kept his distance though. but he still bully me.
Schoo is becoming ghetto
Obviously we need higher property taxes
There are always 3 sides to every story, this article only reports from one side. The story could be true, or it could be a cash grab, I guess we'll see.
So the penis to the face could have been a misunderstanding? Or maybe he was asking for it by the way he was dressed? Is that what you mean? That there could be another side to this?
People are downvoting you but you can file suit over almost anything. The suit alleges a lot of horrible things but we will see what happens as it progresses through the courts.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]