Plaintiffs May Move Ahead On Some of Their Claims Charging Anti-Semitic Bullying

In Shively v. Green Local School District Board of Education, (ND OH, Feb. 28, 2013), parents filed suit claiming that school officials and employees failed to prevent or respond to physical, verbal and electronic religion-based and gender-based bullying of their daughter that went on for years.  Among the many instances of bullying set out in the complaint are claims that students regularly told their daughter she would "rot in Hell" because she did not believe in Jesus Christ, and regularly called her a "dirty Jew" or "Hitler."  An Ohio federal district court permitted plaintiffs to move ahead with substantive due process and equal protection allegations, as well as claims of negligence. However it dismissed several other claims, including one based on the free exercise clause. The court said:

Plaintiffs argue that [their daughter] T.S. has the right to be left alone regarding her religion. Moreover, she has the right not to be punished or put at some disadvantage for being Jewish.... While the events described ... are disturbing on many levels, the Amended Complaint ... presents no facts suggesting that Defendants compromised Plaintiffs’ ability to practice religion.