Family of Bart Palosz sues Greenwich, public schools for failing to protect him from bullying

A photo of Bart Palosz during Vigil Prayer Service for Palosz at Greenwich High School, Tuesday night, Sept. 10, 2013. Palosz committed suicide after attending the first day of classes as a sophomore at Greenwich High school. The Palosz family says the suicide is the result of school bullying over a period of years. less A photo of Bart Palosz during Vigil Prayer Service for Palosz at Greenwich High School, Tuesday night, Sept. 10, 2013. Palosz committed suicide after attending the first day of classes as a sophomore at ... more Photo: Bob Luckey Photo: Bob Luckey Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close Family of Bart Palosz sues Greenwich, public schools for failing to protect him from bullying 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

Almost two years after 15-year-old Bart Palosz committed suicide on the first day of his sophomore year at Greenwich High School, a lawsuit brought against the town sheds new light on the case and again raises the question of whether the school district should share the blame in the teenager’s decision to take his life.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by Bart’s parents, Anna Izabela Palosz and Franciszek Palosz, claims school staff were well aware of bullying he endured at school for years, yet did not follow mandatory anti-bullying policies, a failure they claim contributed to their son’s death.

School documents that indicate what officials did know about Bart’s history, undisclosed until now, have been revealed in filings in state Superior Court in Stamford. They include a record of Bart in the district’s “sharings” program, which details important information for Greenwich High staff about incoming ninth-graders.

“The middle school sharings document is a smoking gun,” said David Golub, the attorney representing the Paloszes. “It shows that the school system knew, but ignored” the Board of Education’s anti-bullying procedures.

Bart is described in the sharings document as a “very socially awkward” student who was bullied regularly during his years at Western Middle School but did not tell anyone about it. The teenager was “annoying” to his peers and would stare at them, but he wanted to be liked and needed to be connected, the document states.

“Social work needed” was written on the form. It was a recommendation that was never acted upon, according to the lawsuit.

School records show that the bullying of Bart included name-calling and teasing, repeated incidents of property theft and hitting and kicking from classmates, according to the lawsuit.

Bart was hit in the head with a locker — an injury that required stitches — and had his shoelaces tied together, according to the sharings document.

“I wanted to make you aware that Bart was pretty severely bullied in middle school,” his guidance counselor wrote in a November 2012 email to Bart’s classroom teachers when he was in ninth grade, another new revelation contained in the lawsuit. “He would not report any of the incidents to the school, so the only way it was brought to light was if it was observed or if he told at home.”

Superintendent of Schools William McKersie and Greenwich High Headmaster Chris Winters declined to comment on the lawsuit. They referred inquiries to Town Attorney John Wayne Fox, who was not available for comment Wednesday.

First Selectman Peter Tesei did not return a message left for him by press time. Board of Education members either did not return messages or declined to comment.

Lawyers for the Paloszes and the town tried for many months to negotiate a settlement, but they could not come to terms, according to Golub. The lawsuit had to be filed before a two-year statute of limitation from the date of Bart’s death went into effect on Aug. 27.

“We feel this lawsuit is important so that other students in Greenwich don’t suffer the same kind of treatment that Bart did,” the Palosz family said in a statement. “It is our hope that this lawsuit will result in changes to how the Greenwich school system responds to students in need of help so that there will be no more needless deaths.”

The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages in excess of $15,000, the threshold for filing in the court. The complaint marks the first legal action brought against the district and town related to Bart’s death.

School and municipal officials have until Sept. 8 to respond.

History of bullying

Reports of bullying became widespread in the immediate aftermath of Bart’s death, a tragedy that shocked the Greenwich community.

“I knew it was a matter of time, but it's very painful to relive what happened to Bart,” Lori Keegan, a friend of the Paloszes, said in an email Wednesday. “Bart was an easy target; he didn’t fight back. He was quiet and shy. I think about him every day.”

Family and friends have said Bart was picked on for a number of reasons, including his socially awkward demeanor, his tall and heavy-set frame, his acne and his Polish accent. His family immigrated to the U.S. from Poland when he was four years old.

Bart’s troubles were known to Western administrators, including two assistant principals, according to the lawsuit. In a May 2012 meeting with then-Assistant Principal Albert Sackey, an eighth-grade Bart reportedly admitted to several instances of being physically and verbally abused.

But Palosz’s treatment by his peers apparently did not improve at Greenwich High, which Bart began attending in the fall of 2012. Less than two months into his freshman year, a classmate in a biology class smashed his new Android smartphone, according to the lawsuit. Shortly after Bart died, his sister, Beata, recalled the same incident.

By the spring of his freshman year, Bart was showing major signs of his distress, the lawsuit said. His grades dropped off precipitously, he decided to stop turning in his homework and he was biting his hands in class.

While he was reluctant to share his ordeals with others face-to-face, Bart did open up on the social network Google+. There, he posted plans to harm himself due to "school caused insanity."

"I have chosen to go with 3 peoples (sic) advice and kill myself," he wrote in June 2013, adding that he had just swallowed pills. "I just wish it was faster."

He would survive that episode and show up for the first day of classes to start his sophomore year, on Aug. 27, 2013. It would be his first and only day at Greenwich High without Beata, who had graduated the previous June. She was a crucial source of company and protection from his antagonists.

After school that day, Bart returned to an empty home. He grabbed the key to a gun safe in his bedroom where his father kept his hunting rifles. With one of those weapons, he ended his life by shooting himself in the head.

Culpability

The lawsuit charges that teachers, administrators and counselors were negligent because they failed in a number of ways to meet the district’s anti-bullying policies and procedures. Their failure comprised a “substantial factor” in Bart’s decision to take his own life, the complaint claims.

They did not, according to the lawsuit, properly carry out the following required actions:

Reporting and investigating bullying of Bart.

Taking the steps prescribed on the middle school “sharings” form.

Notifying and meeting with Bart’s parents and the parents of students who bullied Bart.

Disciplining the students who bullied Bart.

Developing student safety support and intervention plans in response to the bullying of Bart.

“Had defendants’ personnel complied with the mandatory provisions of the policy, as required, Bart would have received counseling, including appropriate encouragement to advocate on his own behalf (which school personnel universally recognized Bart could not do,” the lawsuit states. “Bart also would have been protected from his tormentors and would have been to feel less tormented.”

While school and municipal officials have acknowledged that Palosz was bullied, they have argued that educators cared about him and did their best to help him.

“We knew Bart very well,” McKersie said at Board of Selectmen meeting a couple of weeks after Bart died. “I remember his dad, I remember his mom, I remember his sister... This is a case of a young man who took his life who we knew well.”

But school officials have declined to specify the support that Bart received. Citing privacy laws, they have opposed Freedom of Information requests for access to Bart’s school records.

The district launched an investigation immediately after Bart’s death but handed it over less than two weeks later to the town’s legal department.

In April 2014, Fox, the town attorney, reported on the findings of a draft report, but the document has never been made public.

“It is clear from our investigation that this young man was subjected to acts by students or groups of students directed against him with what I would define and describe as an intent to ridicule, humiliate or to intimidate him,” Fox said at a Board of Education meeting.

“It was also clear to me and to our findings that the school system was aware of those difficulties that Bart was having, was attentive to them and set up procedures and programs in an attempt to address them. There will always be a question and debate as to whether enough was done or if some things could have been done better.”

Other town officials took a more emphatic position.

“We as a community failed this child,” Selectman Drew Marzullo said in February 2014.

“We tried very hard to resolve this matter with the town without the need for a lawsuit, but unfortunately were unable to do so,” Golub said. “It’s a shame that the town, while admitting that it ‘failed this child,’ won’t actually take responsibility for what happened here.”

Golub said the town decided against settling, but he declined to specify the reason.

pschott@scni.com; 203-625-4439; twitter: @paulschott