A Cape Cod father and his teenage son are suing a local school district, alleging school leaders failed to protect the boy from months of racial bullying — contributing to an attempted suicide in 2024.
The Nauset Regional School District faces a federal lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages, in a legal claim that was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court by Lawyers for Civil Rights, a Boston-based legal nonprofit.
The lawsuit — filed by the father, Damion Walker, and his son — claims that the boy, who is Black, was "tormented" by classmates at the Nauset Regional Middle School in Orleans, including being called the N-word and a "slave monkey" and physically assaulted in the school cafeteria and hallways, dating back to 2021.
Brooke Simone, an attorney for Lawyers for Civil Rights, said the middle school staff and administration knew that the boy — whose is named only by his initials in the lawsuit — was being harassed.
"The district knew … that A.W. was being severely harassed because of his race, and still no one stopped it. No one stepped in to make sure that he felt safe and protected, even after … an attempt to commit suicide," Simone said. "Families deserve to know that someone is going to hold this district accountable for their failure to step up and to protect students of color."
Glenn Brand, the superintendent of the Nauset Public Schools, said the system is committed to a "setting that is free from all forms of of harassment and discrimination." But he said he could not comment on specific allegations, citing laws on student confidentiality.
An ongoing investigation into school bullying by GBH News has found that a high rate of schools have failed in recent years to investigate bullying allegations and complaints lodged by students and families, violating Massachusetts' longstanding bullying prevention law.
A statewide poll of more than 1,000 Massachusetts parents of K-12 children, released last month by the MassINC polling group, found that Latino and Black students, along with multilingual learners, experienced bullying at much higher rates than their white peers.
Many mental health specialists say suicides linked to school bullying are rare. But several local cases recently have highlighted the connection in Massachusetts. Among them, the suicide death of a Peabody Middle School student last year led to a community reckoning over the treatment of the boy by fellow students and the school's alleged failure to act.
A case of alleged bullying at Northampton High School linked to a 16-year-old girl's suicide in 2020 prompted another federal lawsuit that is scheduled to go to trial next year.
The girl — who was multiracial — experienced racist cyberbullying and physical attacks during ninth and 10th grade at Northampton High School, including an assault that caused a concussion, according to court records.
The family claims the school district intentionally downgraded complaints to what they called "peer-on-peer conflict'' to avoid following through with state-required bullying intervention, including disciplining bullies. Late last month, a judge ruled the case can go forward.
Damion Walker claims in court records that his then-14-year-old son attempted suicide in March 2024 and spent seven days in a hospital recovering. At the hospital, the boy told staff that school bullying was "100% the reason" for his attempt to end his life, the lawsuit claimed.
"Hospital staff wrote in his discharge plan that A.W. 'is being bullied at school. He states the school knows and is not doing much about it. He states he is bullied every day,'' the lawsuit said.
"No parent should have to watch their child go through what my son went through," Walker said in a written statement. "When we send our kids to school, we should have confidence they are being cared for. But my son nearly died because of Nauset's failure to protect him from extreme racism, and they must be held accountable."
If you or someone you know is going through a difficult time or having thoughts of suicide, please know you are not alone and support is always available — reach out to 988 by call or text for free, confidential help available 24/7.
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