Judge rejects Ridgewood family’s protest in school bullying ruling
Tuesday, May 21, 2013 Last updated: Tuesday May 21, 2013, 11:09 PM
BY LESLIE BRODY
STAFF WRITER
The Record
While educators throughout the state strain to interpret New Jersey’s strict anti-bullying law, a judge has found that an eighth-grade Ridgewood boy violated the rules by calling a fellow student a “horse” and “fat.”
“A reasonable person should know that repeatedly calling a teenage girl ‘fat’ … would have the effect of harming her,” Jeffrey A. Gerson, an administrative law judge in Newark, wrote in the decision, rejecting the boy’s contention that he never intended to harass her. The judge also found that the district’s imposition of two after-school detentions was a fair punishment for a student with no history as a trouble maker.
Gerson noted that the boy had admitted using the word “horse” as a nickname but denied calling the girl overweight.
“A reasonable person should know that repeatedly calling a teenage girl ‘fat’ … would have the effect of harming her”
Just as:
A reasonable person should know that “the district’s imposition of two after-school detentions” would have the effect of harming him.
Has this gone too far?