Suit: CPS Ignored Bullying Allegations Before 12-Year-Old's Suicide
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A mother has sued the Chicago Public Schools, claiming the district ignored her complaints her daughter was being bullied for a year-and-a-half before the 12-year-old girl took her own life five months ago.
WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports McKenzie Phlipot, a 6th-grader at Helen Peirce School of International Studies in Andersonville, hanged herself on May 8.
Her parents' attorney, Robert Bingle, managing partner at Corboy & Demetrio, said McKenzie had endured numerous incidents of bullying.
"Her mother contacted the school, and reported the different instances; which ranged from … pushing in the playground to throwing a coat into a mud puddle. Different instances actually inside the classrooms," he said.
Bingle said, McKenzie's mother, Beth Martin, contacted the school several times to report the bullying, but nothing was done to stop it.
"The Chicago Public Schools, through their school Helen C. Peirce, did not follow their own procedures in investigating and following up on a series of bullying incidents that took place," he said.
Bingle said, before McKenzie hanged herself, she left her mother a suicide not, and wrote a post on social media.
"There were certainly some indications via social media, and a note to her mother, that this bullying is going to stop now," he said.
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages.