Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellow Lizzy Wingfield is quoted in The Philadelphia Inquirer about a landmark court ruling on state protections for students who experience bullying.
In May, a Philadelphia Common Pleas Court judge ordered the Philadelphia School District to pay [a student who had experienced bullying] $500,000 in damages.
It was the first time a court has held a Pennsylvania school district liable for student-on-student harassment under the state’s Human Relations Act, in what experts call a “landmark” decision that could have broad implications for other bullied children and the systems that educate them.
The Philadelphia-based Education Law Center, a nonprofit, often hears from students […] who are being bullied with little or no intervention from adults, said Lizzy Wingfield, a lawyer there. If it stands, this judgment changes the landscape for them, she said.
“This sends a vital message home to school districts,” said Wingfield. “It’s clear under state law now: This is not OK.”
