#school-bullying

#school-bullying

The Spokane School District of Washington State recently paid $60,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that it had failed to protect a transgender student attacked by another student on school grounds. The October 2021 attack involved Ian Ring. At the time, Ring was a 13-year-old seventh-grader at Dr. Jonas E. Salk Middle School. His bully allegedly taunted him with transphobic slurs in the past and then attacked him while he waited for the school bus.

According to the family's lawsuit, early this year the boy inadvertently uploaded an image or video of himself exposing himself to his Snapchat connections, one of whom saved it. The next day Gabriel told his parents, Felipe and Orsolya Palacios, who called the school and the police. A criminal investigation ensued, and the bullying escalated, the lawsuit says. Palacios' mother met with the vice principal, and the lawsuit alleges that the vice principal met with the students suspected of possession and distribution of the upload.