Florida — The parents of a Florida fifth-grade student who committed suicide after allegedly being bullied by a teacher who is accused of recruiting other students to mock the boy have filed a lawsuit against the school district where she worked.
Louis Johnson III committed suicide in April 2023, at the age of ten, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed in early April by his parents, Louis Johnson Jr. and Tyka Johnson. According to the lawsuit, Louis was subjected to extreme bullying, which was sometimes led by a staff member, his own teacher, Donna White.
“Ms. White constantly, consistently, and relentlessly publicly humiliated minor child Louis Johnson, III in front of this peers, calling him ‘stupid’ and ridiculing him in front of his classmates on several occasions over the span of months,” according to the charge.
Additionally, White allegedly “would also recruit other students to ridicule minor child Louis Johnson III and ask these other minor student classmates to agree with her comments that Louis Johnson, III was ‘stupid’ and that he ‘didn’t know anything.'”
The school district “allowed [White’s] behavior to continue for a period of at least 3 — 4 months prior to his death,” the complaint states. The parents say their pleas to the school about White, as well as their request for the district to intervene on their son’s behalf, went unanswered.
The school board, they claim, “did nothing to prevent or correct her behavior.”
The parents claim that it all added up to intolerable conditions for Louis at school.
Louis “suffered such mental distress that it manifested itself into physical distress, including thoughts of suicide, anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, crying, nightmares, fear, anguish, and embarrassment,” according to the complaint.
According to the complaint, Louis committed suicide “after enduring months of bullying and public embarrassment” at the hands of White and the school board.
According to local ABC affiliate WCJB, the school district’s internal report found that White’s behavior caused significant psychological distress to several students.
Within months of Louis’ death, the school informed White that his contract would not be renewed.
The grieving parents allege negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and negligent supervision by the school board. Court records did not show a future court date.
