BRUNSWICK

The Brunswick School Board approved $25,000 to settle an ongoing suit involving alleged bullying and harassment at Brunswick Junior High School.

The lawsuit, filed in 2014, alleges that the school department and junior high school principal did not do enough to prevent the bullying of a student.

The student claims he was bullied by other students, sexually assaulted and called “gay” in a derogatory manner multiple times beginning in 2010, and “the principal did not take this harassment seriously.” The suit also alleges that the principal treated sexual harassment claims by female students more seriously.

In 2012, the student refused to return to Brunswick Junior High School and was later diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The student and his family sought assistance from the Maine Human Rights Commission. A MHRC investigator found that the school had “allowed a hostile educational environment to persist” and had not reacted to the student’s harassment appropriately.

The details of the settlement are not public and must be approved by a judge. It is unclear how much of the $25,000 approved by the school board will go to the student. The student’s lawyer, David Webbert, and the executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission, Amy Sneirson, explained that the settlement would include provisions to help prevent future bullying at the school.

“The part we feel most strongly and are most pleased about is that they will create a digital, electronic system for keeping records about all allegations of bullying … that can be searched by word or name,” said Sneirson.

“One of the issues in this case was the school saying that they handled each instance of bullying sort of as a separate matter with regard to the family at issue,” she added. “And our thought was that if someone had put different incidents together, maybe they would have seen a pattern. So hopefully this is something that would in the future let the Brunswick School Department do that.”

The settlement would also require the establishment of a Gay- Straight Alliance at the junior high and in-person training about sex stereotyping and bullying.

“It was really important to my clients that there be some changes to try to make sure that bullying doesn’t happen in the future to other people — to make things better for the people that come next,” said Webbert. “Bullying is not just a sideshow, it really prevents students from doing well in school — it drops test scores, it drops their ability to reach their full potential.”

Brunswick Superintendent Paul Perzanoski insisted that many of the suit’s allegations against school employees are without merit, but said that it was time to move on.

“This is a difficult decision for me, and initially I did not support the idea of settling the case at all, let alone contributing funds to the settlement,” said Perzanoski. “I felt, and still feel, that we need to stand up for our employees because we know they did not do anything wrong. But we know that they are dedicated professionals who treat bullying issues seriously, and that many of the things alleged against them are false.

“But seeing the amount of time this is taking, and the amount of time it will take away from teaching and learning if the case goes to trial, I am convinced that it is in the best interest of the school and the entire school department that we resolve the case and move on,” Perzanoski continued.

nstrout@timesrecord.com