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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowTwo families are suing Perry Township Schools for unspecified damages over the alleged bullying of two students with disabilities that left them with traumatic head injuries, arguing in court filings that the district has shown continued apathy toward habitual violence in school.
The two students of Perry Meridian High School and Rosa Parks Elementary, both identified as “James Doe” in the separate complaints, had witnessed or been the subject of repeated violence at school before suffering severe head injuries in 2024, according to the lawsuits.
Attorneys for the families said in a statement on Wednesday that they also filed special education complaints with the Indiana Department of Education, which they said has failed to enforce state bullying statutes.
The lawsuits argue that a culture of unchecked student violence exists throughout the district, noting previous media coverage of a 75-year-old substitute teacher injured by a student and incidents of students making threatening posts on social media.
“Further, students within the Perry Township have become so brazenly violent that they frequently post on social media pictures of guns and gang activity, threats of violence, videos of violent fights occurring at school, and even boasts about their own violent acts without any fear of repercussions,” the lawsuit from the Rosa Parks Elementary family states.
A Perry Township Schools spokesperson said in a statement that the district cannot comment on pending litigation, but that it has stringent anti-bullying policies and practices.
“If an incident is reported to staff, a thorough investigation between administrators and all relevant parties will take place,” spokesperson Elizabeth Choi said in the statement. “We’d also like to stress the importance of reporting bullying incidents, so that we may investigate them.”
IDOE did not return a request for comment.
Rosa Parks student left with seizures after attack, lawsuit says
The complaint from a former Rosa Parks Elementary family alleges that a 12-year-old student who requires specialized supervision due to multiple disabilities and impairments suffered “relentless and ongoing bullying” starting in 2021 that included being slapped, pushed, and punched by peers.
When the bullying escalated in fall 2023, the student’s mother tried multiple times to communicate with school officials about the “urgent need for intervention,” the lawsuit states. School personnel dismissed or downplayed her concerns, according to the complaint.
The students’ mother also reported threats of violence from three students to the school and school police in spring of 2024, according to the lawsuit.
The violence culminated in April of that year, when one student assaulted James’ face. That student did not face disciplinary action, the complaint states. Three days later, James was “brutally attacked” by the same student, who slammed James’ head against a metal paper towel dispenser in a bathroom.
Hospital staff confirmed that James suffered a severe concussion, and James began having seizures within two weeks after the attack, according to the lawsuit. When he returned to school for the next school year, he was punched in the head and face while walking onto the school bus.
“As the parents began again to plead with school staff trying to call their awareness to the issues they were often indifferent or falsely reassuring with protections or changes that would never be made,” the complaint states.
James’ parents have had to seek their own protection orders against the students who “habitually abused” James, the lawsuit states, “because the School has failed to provide adequate separation and protection, allowing these students to continue to attack James openly at School with only inconsistent and minimal discipline.”
James has also suffered regular nocturnal seizures since the April 2024 incident, and is now prescribed an anti-seizure medication that costs roughly $1,000 per month, according to the complaint.
Perry Meridian ‘has lost control of its student body,’ lawsuit says
Another complaint from a Perry Meridian High School family states that an 11th-grade student with a tic disorder and learning disabilities was also “relentlessly targeted by bullies” in the 2024-25 school year.
The student, also identified as James Doe, began using the school nurse’s restroom in order to avoid confrontation with students in unsupervised spaces, according to the complaint.
In September of 2024, another student struck James on the back of the head in the hallway, sending him into the steel rails of a staircase and leaving him bloody and unconscious, the lawsuit states. The attack sent him to the hospital by an ambulance for emergency treatment, and he sustained a concussion and two “gaping lacerations” on his forehead and cheek.
“The onlooking students were seemingly unphased by this random act of violence and some began taking pictures of James laying bloodied on the floor,” the lawsuit states. “At least one of these photos was posted on social media with the caption, ‘perry so ghetto’ with laughing emojis.”
The attack on James and bullying of other students and staff, the lawsuit states, shows that the school has “lost control of its student body.”
Lawyers say state bullying statute has no teeth
Attorneys for the families said they anticipate filing even more lawsuits regarding Perry Township schools. The attorneys also represent a family suing Indianapolis Public Schools over alleged abuse of a student with disabilities at George Washington Carver Montessori School 87.
They have also filed three special education due process complaints with the Indiana Department of Education, arguing that these students and other Perry Township students did not receive a free and appropriate public education—as required by federal law—due to bullying.
The attorneys also argue that state statutes regarding bullying in schools have no real enforcement mechanisms.
The state requires school districts to report student bullying and arrest data to the IDOE. But there have been no audits conducted to ensure the data is accurate or actions taken to force schools to improve the school environment, the attorneys argued.
“It’s the lack of enforcement,” said attorney Catherine Michael. “To support teachers and to support families, it needs to be enforced.”
State data on the IDOE website shows that Rosa Parks Elementary, for example, reported zero incidents of physical or verbal bullying in 2023-24 and just one incident of social or relational bullying—the same year that the complaint claims James Doe repeatedly suffered “physical aggression and verbal harassment.” Data for Perry Meridian High School shows three incidents of written or electronic bullying for that year, but no instances of physical bullying.
“These two cases, and the ones we currently have with the IDOE, are just the tip of the iceberg,” Michael said.
Chalkbeat Indiana is a not-for-profit news site covering educational change in public schools.
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The problem is government or education department interference. Schools get lower “grades” for suspensions and worse for expulsions. These bureaucrats tie the hands of teachers and administrators. Students cannot get the discipline needed to stop the bullying and fights – thanks to the outsiders. And, if a student who has missed school 80% of the year deserves an F, he or she must be given a D- , as an F in any case is considered the teacher’s ineffective teaching. All of these outside people who mandate these absurb policies that schools must enact should be required to substitute teach for six months to know how the district personnel are undermined and prevented from taking appropriate disciplinary measures.
And, grades like students receive for schools is preposterous. Putting schools on the same plane as students is laughable. What about highly effective, effective, needs improvement, etc. ?