BRUNSWICK

The Brunswick School Department will settle a lawsuit for $125,000. The suit alleges that school officials did not properly handle complaints of bullying and harassment directed at a then- Brunswick Junior High School student.

Most of the settlement — $75,000 — will go toward legal expenses incurred by the former student’s family. The remaining $50,000 will go toward the former student’s post-secondary education expenses.

The former student, under the alias John Doe, claims he suffered from multiple instances of bullying and harassment by other students. The suit alleges that “the principal did not take this harassment seriously,” and treated complaints differently than claims of bullying or abuse from female students.

The student left the junior high to be homeschooled in 2012. He was later diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, according to the lawsuit. After being contacted by John Doe’s family, the Maine Human Rights Commission investigated his claims. The investigation found many of the claims to be valid, and joined the suit.

The school department has been adamant that no wrongdoing occurred and that school officials acted properly. The school board in October approved $25,000 toward the settlement.

“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 Superintendent Paul Perzanoski in a statement earlier this month. “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.”

The settlement does not require any admission of wrongdoing or violation of the Maine Human Rights Act by the school. although it does require a number of actions to be taken by the school to protect future students from bullying and harassment.

The lawyer for John Doe, David Webbert, and the Maine Human Rights Commission said an electronic database of bullying incidents is an essential tool required by the lawsuit that can help prevent bullying.

“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 Amy Sneirson, executive director of the Maine Human Rights Commission.

“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.”

Other requirements of the settlement are the establishment of a Gay-Straight Alliance at the school and annual reports on its effort to prevent bullying. The settlement also insists that the school continue a number of anti-bullying measures, including training sessions, school-wide assemblies, and surveys about 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.”