Boy's parents sue district over bullying.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

The family of a Eugene middle school student who was attacked by a group of students on a school bus filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday asking for an unspecified payment for damages and seeking to force the Eugene School District to institute new policies to prevent bullying.

The incident, recorded by a camera on the parked bus, gained national notoriety after it was played on a local newscast.

The tape showed the fight and the nearby driver failing to take notice of it. The child, Casey Woodruff, and his parents, Roger and Ciel Woodruff, were then invited to appear on the "Good Morning America" program, which played the tape and discussed with them the issue of bullying in school.

But the lawsuit is about more than the bus incident, said Eugene lawyer Marianne Dugan, who represents the Woodruffs.

The lawsuit contends Casey was regularly attacked - by two boys in particular and often with other boys joining in - beginning in 2001, when he was an 11-year-old student at Willakenzie Elementary School. The suit says Casey's parents reported the violence and named the attackers, but the district failed to prevent continuing assaults until after the Oct. 2, 2002, attack on the bus.

The suit contends the district showed deliberate indifference for the boy's federally protected civil rights, including due process by the district to prevent the reported violence and to protect his right to attend school free of violence.

School district spokesman Kelly McIver agreed that Casey had been harassed. However, he said district officials investigated every report of violence, disciplined the offending students and the bus driver and took other steps to make school safe for Casey.

Nevertheless, the Woodruffs claim the district took a "hands off" approach to the bullying and violence. They say the bus attack was not the worst violence their son faced. He suffered pain, anguish and anxiety. Dugan said he is being counseled to deal with emotional issues from the attacks.

"This is not a case where the family is upset because their kid got into an occasional playground scuffle," Dugan said. "A clique of boys repeatedly and violently beat Casey for more than a year. Some attacks took place in full view of Casey's teachers."

In one attack, in an unsupervised school hallway, Casey was punched, kicked, kneed in the groin and taunted by at least five boys for several minutes, Dugan said.

When the boys graduated to Monroe Middle School, Casey was assigned to classes along with his attackers even though a school official had promised he would not be, according to the lawsuit. The assaults continued, the Woodruffs continued reporting them, and school officials continued to fail to protect Casey, the suit asserts.

Only after the bus incident culminated in national attention did the district take decisive action against the attackers, the lawsuit contends. Three of the attackers were suspended from school for 10 days, the suit says. McIver said confidentiality laws do not permit the district to disclose discipline meted to students or employees.

He said two of the students have since transferred out of the district and the bus driver still works for the district, but on a different route.

McIver said Casey attends Monroe Middle School with a plan in place to ensure immediate reporting of any bullying and prompt action by school officials.

"Monroe, like all schools in the Eugene School District, works on anti-bullying curriculum throughout the school in an effort to teach students safe and proper school behavior," McIver said. "Our policies condemn harassment and our school-wide programs combat harassment and promote positive behavior. We regret what happened to Casey. We do feel that school officials responded appropriately."

However, the Woodruffs are irked that school officials waited more than eight months to respond to their initial notice of the lawsuit - until just days before the deadline to file suit in court.

Roger Woodruff said the delay is further evidence the district is not taking the bullying problem seriously.

Ciel Woodruff said they filed the lawsuit reluctantly.

"I had really hoped that we could resolve this without a lawsuit, but if that's what it takes to make the district take this seriously and change the way they handle these sorts of problems, we are ready to take it to that level," she said.

McIver said the delay happened because the district was awaiting further contact from the lawyer who handled the Woodruffs' initial claim, which sought $250,000.

Dugan said the case is not about money for the Woodruffs, but about forcing the district to implement policies to prevent violence and to respond to bullying.

"They (the Woodruffs) say the case is not about money," Dugan said. "They want the number to be big enough so the district pays attention."

Named as defendants are the district, Superintendent George Russell, Assistant Superintendent Tom Henry, former Monroe Assistant Principal Beverly Sept, Willakenzie Principal Doug Gallup, district transportation manager Jan Anderson and the bus driver, who is not identified. No trial date has been set.