Gabriel Taye.Photo: GoFundMe
More than four years after losing their 8-year-old son to suicide, the family ofGabriel Tayehas reached a $3 million settlement agreement with Cincinnati Public Schools amid a lawsuit that accused the school system of covering up the bullying that ultimately led to the child’s death.
Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS)announced an agreementwith the Taye family on Friday, subject to the approval of the Board of Education, which is expected to come during a board meeting on Monday night.
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CPS and Taye family counsel will meet twice a year for the next two years to monitor the terms, CPS said in a news release.
“In honor of Gabe his family is using this settlement to protect current and future CPS students. We will make sure these reforms take root and end bullying throughout the CPS system,” the family’s lead counsel Al Gerhardstein said in a statement.
Aaron Herzig, a partner at Taft Stettinius & Hollister LLP and lead counsel for CPS, said in a statement that while the defendants do not believe that CPS, its employees or the school nurse were responsible for Gabriel’s death, “resolution of this difficult matter is in the best interest of all parties.”
“CPS does embrace the elimination of bullying within schools, as well as continuing to refine and improve reporting, management, and training processes related to incidents of bullying,” Herzig said.
Gabriel’s family filed a federal lawsuit in 2017 alleging that officials at Carson School, where Gabriel was in third grade, knew bullying was “rampant,” but covered it up and did not report it to parents, theCincinnati Enquirerreported.
Among his injuries were a head wound suffered on Halloween, though former principal Ruthenia Jackson and former assistant principal Jeffrey McKenzie allegedly told Gabriel’s mother that they could not determine how it happened — and would not look at playground video footage, according to theEnquirer.
During the month he died, Gabriel was attacked and injured three separate times — and McKenzie allegedly never told the child’s mother, Cornelia Reynolds, that two students were suspended for attacking her son.
The suit also reportedly claimed that two days before his death, Gabriel was knocked unconscious for seven minutes after he was pushed into a bathroom wall, and school officials did not call 911, despite the fact that CPS policy required a call.
In January, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously rejected the district’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, with the court saying that the alleged actions of the Carson School nurse and administrators were “egregious and clearly reckless,” according to theEnquirer.
Gabriel’s parents have since launched theGabriel Taye Foundationas a way of advocating and raising awareness “for every child or teen who has or is suffering as a result of bullying.”
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or go tosuicidepreventionlifeline.org.
source: people.com
