WILLIAMSON CO./U.S. DISTRICT COURT, BENTON— The father of a 15-year-old Carterville High School teen who took his life after viewing a video about bullying shown by the school has filed a federal Wrongful Death lawsuit.
Brad Lewis, of Collinsville, believes the video, shown to the sophomore students at a school seminar, which he claims contained information on the choice of suicide when dealing with bullies, lead to his Jordan Lewis’ death.
Following the video, one of Jordan’s friends told about the bullying and his thoughts on killing himself.
Jordan Lewis
She reported it to her grandmother, who called police.
Authorities are said to have checked on the teen and found him to be okay.
However, the next day his mother, Tina Lewis, called home to make sure he had gotten up for school and received no answer.
When she came home from work later that day she found her son dead from a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the chest.
Numerous bullying reports made, claims that coach instigated
Individuals listed in the lawsuit include: Carterville Community Unit School Dist. #5, Cambria Police Dept., District School Superintendent Bob Prusator, of 105 South Maple St., Cambria; Principal of Carterville High School Keith Liddell, of 1005 Jeffrey Dr., Carterville; Football Coach at Carterville High School Dennis Drust, of 1205 Mockingbird Ln., Carterville; Erik Rebstock, of 757 Holt Rd., #1, Webster NY., who was living with the teen and his mother at the time of his death; and 3screens.com who produced the anti-bullying video Lewis believes lead to his son’s death.
According to the filing, some of the bullying Jordan endured included but wasn’t limited to his head being slammed into the lockers by students and members of the Carterville High School football team, Jordan being punched on multiple occasions by students of Carterville High School, Carterville High School students attempting to push Jordan down flights of stairs and Jordan being called embarrassing names and ridiculed on a regular basis while attending Carterville High School.
Lewis claims in the lawsuit that Carterville High School Principal Keith Liddell and football coach Dennis Drust were both made aware of all the incidents of bullying being perpetrated against Jordan but did little to nothing to remedy the situation nor did they take any corrective action to prevent any further bullying in the future.
Lewis claims there were even times when coach Drust was the one who instigated the bullying against Jordan.
When advised of the bullying, Drust, instead of calling down those who were doing the bullying, told the young teen to “toughen up.”
“Piercing the Darkness” no notification and no opt out
While the video “Piercing the Darkness” is billed as an anti-bullying video allegedly meant to inform students about the potential “darkness” they may encounter when confronting issues such as drug abuse, bullying and disabilities and how to bring light into their lives and the lives of others, it showed pictures of young students who had committed suicide due to bullying, leaving many of the students who viewed the video in tears while reliving their own experiences with bullying.
One of the more disturbing aspects of “seminar” is that neither parents nor students were notified the video was going to be played and the school offered no opt out for students.
Following the video Jordan is said to have expressed his suicidal thoughts and one of the students said to him, “You don’t have the balls to kill yourself.”
The next day, October 17, 2013, Jordan walked up to Erik Rebstock’s unlocked gun case, located in his mother’s home that she shared with Rebstock, and, according to the filing, “pulled out a negligently stored shotgun and fatally shot himself in the chest.”
A letter, from Jordan, found in the home said: “Bullying has caused me to do this those of you know who you are.”
Policy required by law to be implemented
Illinois law required each school district create, maintain and implement a policy on bullying and while Carterville School District has such a policy, Jordan’s father believed they never implemented it.
The Carterville School District’s police regarding bullying actually states: “The District will not tolerate harassing, intimidating conduct, or bullying whether verbal, physical or visual that affects the tangible benefits of education, that unreasonably interfere with a student’s educational performance, or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive educational environment. Any district employee who is determined, after an investigation, to have engaged in conduct prohibited by this policy will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including discharge. Any district student who is determined, after an investigation, to have engaged in conduct prohibited by this police will be subject to disciplinary action, including but not limited to, suspension and expulsion consistent with the disciplinary policy.”
Jordan’s father believes that despite the “policy” there is no evidence that the school district put into practice their own policies and procedures to respond to and acting to prevent further occurrences of bullying, harassment, and violence.
Instead of promoting an environment that was sensitive to bullying, harassment, and violence the court filing says, “Carterville School District fostered an environment where bullying, harassment, and violence was uncontrolled and when it occurred, school personnel did not intervene and/or take part ‘took part’ in instigation of such acts.”
Neglected to protect student
Lewis claims the school district denied his son his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, being the right to bodily integrity, to be secure and to be left alone and to life by condoning practices, including but not limited to inadequate training of teachers, administrators and faculty members regarding bullying, harassment and violence; the failure to follow policies and procedures to protect Jordan from known dangerous situations, including the regularly occurring bullying, harassment and violence; the inadequate investigations of complaints by students of bullying, the negligent permitting of the bullying, harassment and violence after being informed of and/or witnessing the acts with reckless and wanton disregard for Jordan’s civil rights.
Jordan is said to have reported incidents of bullying, harassment and violence on several occasions.
The filing claims that the superintendent, principal and coach all knew or should have known about the bullying, harassment and violence being perpetrated upon Jordan.
And that the three men’s “statements and omissions… were shocking to the conscience… That Jordan was embarrassed, humiliated, suffered mental anguish, was the subject of ridicule and suffered physical injury… which continued until Jordan Lewis [who was allowed to be tormented and ridiculed on a regular basis, and allowed to be physically harmed on multiple occasions while on school premises] took his life.”
More should have been done by many
Lewis claims that officer Paisley, of the Cambria Police Department, after speaking with Jordan and his mother Tina, knew or should have know Jordan was at risk and should have contacted someone trained in suicide prevention to assess Jordan’s situation or he should have taken Jordan to the nearby hospital where he could have been properly evaluated.
He claims that Rebstock was negligent when, after Jordan had expressed suicidal thoughts to a friend, he left an unlocked case of firearms readily available to Jordan the next morning.
“A reasonable person in Mr. Rebstock’s position would have safely stored his firearms as to prevent a live-in 15-year-old boy with suicidal thoughts from accessing the weapons,” the filing stated.
Lewis, through his attorney D. Todd Mathews, of Gori Julian & Associates, of Edwardsville, is asking for a jury trial and to be awarded unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, an award for pain and suffering, attorney’s fees, expenses and costs of the lawsuit and for “such further relief as the court deems necessary, just and proper.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hit our Facebook page (yes we still have one), and this post on it if you’d like to discuss this subject on Facebook; and be sure you check your “get notifications” selection under the ‘like’ button on our page; recent Facebook upgrades have booted many of our followers off from getting our posts. Also, check us on Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Tumblr!