South Burlington, Vermont - October 6, 2011
A former South Burlington student says she was tormented by bullies and the school did nothing. But the school district says it took appropriate measures to protect her. Now the case has gone to court.
These allegations date back to 2003. Kylie Kenney was a sixth-grader at Tuttle Middle School. The now-sophomore in college says the harassment was so bad it still haunts her today.
"She's been put through hell," John Franco said.
Franco is Kenney's lawyer. He says school bullies made her life miserable for years. The lawsuit alleges her classmates constantly poked fun at her physical features, publicly questioned her sexuality, drew swastikas on her yearbook and harassed her into buying their lunches.
"The same individuals that were involved in these episodes created this website that said that she should be killed. It was called Kill Kylie," Franco said.
According to the lawsuit, the website was "devoted to show people how gay Kylie Kenney is." It listed 13 reasons why "Kylie must die," including calling her fat and ugly. The site was taken down quickly and its creators were suspended from school for two days. But Kylie's lawyer says the message stuck.
"It went viral. And it kind of haunted her until she was really out of high school," Franco said. "She's been diagnosed as having post-traumatic stress disorder. It's also affected her gastrointestinal system. It's actually manifested itself with physical problems that she's still coping with."
Reporter Jennifer Reading: This alleged bullying happened in 2003. Why wait till now to file the lawsuit?
John Franco: There's never been any what they call medical finality for the damages that Kylie's been suffering; the physical and psychological impact. So, usually when that's the case you want to wait until the last possible moment to file the claim.
Kylie's lawyer says this lawsuit isn't about the ugly things her peers allegedly put her through, but the school district's failure to protect her.
"Our allegation in the lawsuit was that South Burlington's reaction was very much inadequate. The standard under the federal statute is that they were deliberatively indifferent," Franco said. "There wasn't really even a consensus among the teachers in the South Burlington school district that this even constituted bullying."
"Do I think that the district responded appropriately to these matters to help mitigate and educate? Absolutely," David Young said.
Young is South Burlington's new superintendent. He says he's reviewed the case and he's confident his district followed the rules.
"It was clear to me that they looked at all that was brought forth and investigated it and in some cases rendered consequences, appropriate consequences, to students that should be," Young said.
The district doesn't deny that Kylie may have been bullied, but it does say that the alleged behavior did not meet the legal definition of harassment. The district says Kylie did not always report the incidents and denies that educators ignored Kylie and her family's concerns when she did come forward.
"It is our view that the school balanced everyone's rights," said Pietro Lynn, the legal counsel for the South Burlington School District.
Lynn says punishing students for actions that occur outside of school, like the creation of the website, is a fine line.
"Schools are conscious where there is out-of-school conduct that it may bleed into school and they do their very best to be proactive around those issues. It's a difficult balance to strike," Lynn said.
The case is now in the discovery phase. We're told that could take a year. The Kenney family is looking for financial compensation for what Kylie allegedly went through, but the district says it's confident it won't settle.
