A New Jersey high school reached a settlement with the family of Myles Fitzpatrick, a trans teen who took his own life in 2022 after serial harassment by classmates and the alleged failure of school staff to acknowledge his distress or stop the bullying, My Central Jersey reports.
Fitzpatrick, who started his transition two years before his passing, was 17 years old.
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Under the out-of-court settlement with the Manville School District, Fitzpatrick’s estate will receive $603,664, which passes to its lone beneficiary, Fitzpatrick’s mother, Danielle Warshefski. The law firm representing the family will receive $338,009.
Fitzpatrick, a senior at Manville High School, died by suicide in November 2022 after he was “subjected to continued severe harassment and bullying by his fellow students based upon his gender identity, including derogatory comments and having items thrown at him,” according to the lawsuit filed by his mother in Superior Court in Somerset County in May 2023.
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“In our opinion, the current system let Myles down, and we look forward to proving the allegations contained in the lawsuit to hopefully effectuate positive change in that regard,” R. Daniel Bause, Warshefski’s attorney, said at the time.
The suit painted Fitzpatrick as a young teen suffering under growing stress and a willfully negligent school administration.
School officials “failed to implement any preventative or remedial measures to protect against unlawful harassment and discrimination” during Fitzpatrick’s gender transition, the suit alleged.
Fitzpatrick entered the district during the 2018-2019 school year and came out as transgender around December 2020, according to the suit. He began his transition during the COVID pandemic lockdown while school classes were fully virtual.
When in-person classes resumed for the 2021-2022 school year, Fitzpatrick “became the target of severe harassment, intimidation, and bullying by his fellow students due to his gender identity.”
The bullying included “constant” slights and insults throughout each day about Fitzpatrick’s gender identity, transitioning status, appearance, and clothing choices, the suit claimed.
Fitzpatrick was harassed, misgendered (referred to as “she”), the suit detailed, as well as called slurs like “f**got.” Other “overt derogatory references to his gender identity” included assertions from classmates that “he would never be a male.”
The bullying was physical too, the lawsuit alleged. Fitzpatrick was “pushed into lockers,” along with “having items thrown at him, being kicked, and having his hair pulled” in hallways, the boy’s locker room, and bathrooms, the suit added.
Some of the bullying occurred in front of teachers and staff members “without intervention,” the suit claimed, resulting in “severe depression and anxiety” for Fitzpatrick.
This manifested in “acts of self-mutilation and/or self-harm” that took place in class but were ignored by teachers, the suit alleged, evidenced by at least one instance of “bloody sleeves” that instructors allegedly ignored.
While Fitzpatrick and his mother both made complaints to school officials and Fitzpatrick’s class counselor, “nothing sufficient was done” to address them, and the bullying grew worse, the lawsuit said.
Fitzpatrick did request and was given permission to use the faculty lounge restroom and nurse’s office restroom after continued bullying in the boys’ locker room and bathrooms, but that permission was withdrawn without explanation. A request to attend virtual classes or to be homeschooled was also denied.
The harassment only escalated, the suit said, until Fitzpatrick took his life.
The defendants’ level of misconduct surpasses “all bounds of decency tolerated by our society,” the lawsuit asserted.
Fitzpatrick, who would be 21 this year, is survived by his mother Danielle, his step-father Robert Gawel, his siblings Sean, Justyn, Kaleb, and Evelyn, and his “loving cat” Simba.
“All I can say is my sweet boy, my heart will forever love you,” read a tribute from his mother following her son’s death.
“I will always always miss you and just know YOU MYLES WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN, EVER! My baby you will always be. Rest in peace sweet boy and dance with the angels in the sky.”
Editor’s note: This article mentions suicide. If you need to talk to someone now, call the Trans Lifeline at 1-877-565-8860. It’s staffed by trans people, for trans people. The Trevor Project provides a safe, judgement-free place to talk for LGBTQ youth at 1-866-488-7386. You can also call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
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