A federal court will soon decide whether schools can claim immunity from wrongful death lawsuits following Gabriel Taye's death

A federal court will soon decide whether schools can claim immunity from wrongful death lawsuits when they don’t tell parents about incidents of violence against their children who later commit suicide. Cincinnati Public Schools and Carson Elementary School say they could not have foreseen that a bullied child would kill himself and to be held responsible for student suicides “open whole new vistas of liability for schools… .”

Gabriel Taye’s parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against a school district for failing to disclose incidents of violence against the 8-year-old. Gabriel took his own life two days after he was repeatedly attacked in his school's bathroom. The school merely reported that he “fainted.” Not knowing about the attack, his mother sent him back to school two days later, where he was bullied again. That night, Gabriel committed suicide. After that, the parents say, the school attempted to cover up the extent of the bullying.

The school had surveillance cameras installed near bathrooms to monitor aggression and criminal activity. Wasn't anyone monitoring the video feed? Because the school district knew about previous instances of Gabriel being bullied, they had an even higher level of responsibility to review the camera feed immediately upon discovering him injured on the floor within sight of the video camera. No matter what, the parents deserved a phone call at the very least. Yet it seems they failed to do that much. 

Schools already know that bullying can lead to suicide. Some states have passed laws to do more to protect students from bullying. For example, in California, new laws go into effect in 2020 mandating suicide prevention education in elementary schools. Laws already on the books prevent schools from arguing “it’s not our fault.” 

Because children are required to attend school, schools have the burden to provide a safe and peaceful place to learn. We understand that is a big, but not insurmountable, commission. Much better to monitor surveillance videos conscientiously and take appropriate action than live with the unfortunate fact that a child you could have saved gave up because you didn’t.