Teen sues all-girls school over alleged bullying

By Matt Sedensky | The Associated Press

MIAMI - A teenage girl has sued her private, all-girls Catholic school, claiming it allowed bullying to spread from the classroom to online social networks.

The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Circuit Court against Our Lady of Lourdes Academy, the Archdiocese of Miami and Archbishop John Favalora.

According to the filing, the victim, whose name was not included in the lawsuit, was verbally and physically taunted at school by classmates and that the harassment eventually moved online to Facebook, where she was allegedly targeted with a ``hate page.'' That site allegedly broadcast a threat to ``kill the flea,'' referring to the victim.

Both the defendant and a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, Mary Ross Agosta, say there was a meeting at the school between the accused bullies and the alleged victim. Agosta says the bullies were suspended for their actions, but the lawsuit claims the harassment continued, and included threats of harm to retaliate for reporting the behavior.

The suit claims a nun at the school saw the victim cornered by the alleged bullies but did nothing to stop them. The girl eventually dropped out of the school.

Our Lady of Lourdes has an anti-bullying policy that Agosta said was followed.

The plaintiff is seeking more than $15,000 in damages and claims she is suicidal and suffers from flashbacks and anxiety.

Agosta said the continued bullying online could not have happened on school grounds, saying students must leave their cell phones in lockers and that the school does not have Internet access, though an online course catalog for the school includes a Web design course whose topics include learning to ``access the World Wide Web.''

``Cyberbullying cannot occur at the school because they don't have access,'' the spokeswoman said. She said the school could not police what took place off campus.

``I don't think that is our role. At some point, the parents must kick in and know what's going on. For us to extend our areas of responsibility to outside the school, outside school hours,'' she said, ``I don't think is feasible or reasonable.''