There is never an excuse for bullying, especially in schools. Unfortunately, it happens and can often have a long-term effect of a person’s self-confidence and overall emotional health. One family with a student in Waukee Community School District even recently filed a lawsuit over the bullying their daughter endured at school. The student, Berkley Maschka, attended Waukee schools last year. According to the lawsuit, school administrators allegedly “failed to protect Berkley from ongoing bullying — and then assaulted the third-grader when she refused to go to her classroom.” As a result of the lawsuit, the family was recently awarded a “$150,000 settlement from the district.”
There is never an excuse for bullying, especially in schools. Unfortunately, it happens and can often have a long-term effect of a person’s self-confidence and overall emotional health. One family with a student in Waukee Community School District even filed a federal lawsuit over the bullying their daughter endured at school. The student, Berkley Maschka, attended Waukee schools last year. According to the lawsuit, school administrators allegedly “failed to protect Berkley from ongoing bullying — and then assaulted the third-grader when she refused to go to her classroom.” As a result of the lawsuit, the family was recently awarded a “$150,000 settlement from the district.”
What happened, though? What kind of bullying and assault did the child endure? Well, according to the lawsuit, the bullying had been occurring for years and assault took place in 2016. Berkley’s parents claimed she was “bullied by several classmates starting in kindergarten and continuing through her third-grade year.” She was picked on about her appearance, “specifically her height and weight.” As a result, her parents sent emails to “teachers and administrators detailing the bullying and their daughter’s resulting mental health issues” in hopes that someone would step in and put an end to the bullying. That didn’t happen, though. Instead, on November 11, 2016, “three administrators pushed and prodded the then 9-year-old into a wheelchair after she refused to go to class. Berkley was having anxiety about encountering a bully,” according to her parents.
During the November 11 incident, her parents claimed that “administrators pulled Berkley up by her wrists and arms, and used their feet to push and kick her back and buttocks.” From there, the suit alleged that the same administrators “forcibly held her down in the wheelchair.” In total, it’s estimated that the entire incident went on for 90 minutes.
Following the incident, which left the child with psychological and physical injuries, the Maschkas pulled Berkley and their other two children from Waukee schools “and have been homeschooling them since.” When commenting on her daughter’s ordeal, Andrea Maschka said:
“She’s getting better. She’s still in therapy for trauma. It’s just a long process. But for the first time in a couple of years, she actually told us what she wants to be when she grows up. She wants to be a lawyer. She wants to help people…As a parent, there is no price that can make up for what (Berkley) went through during those four years. For us, it wasn’t about the money. It was about standing up for our daughter and doing what was right.”
Despite the recent settlement announcement, the Waukee Community School District denies any wrongdoing. It should also be noted that the decision to settle “was made by the district’s insurance carrier, EMC Insurance Co., which will pay the claim.”
What will the Maschka family get from the settlement, though? For starters, Brian and Andrea Maschka are set to receive $17,535.91 to put towards Berkley’s education. Berkley will receive $60,000 paid in “four installments after she turns 18-years-old.” Another $72,464.09 will go toward Bobby Rehkemper, the family’s lawyer.
In addition to the settlement, Rehkemper said the family “asked the district to change its training on identifying bullying and harassment and improve its anti-bullying policies.” However, the district “wouldn’t agree to anything like that during settlement negotiations,” Rehkemper said. However, since the bullying incident was made public, the district “created a more robust web page that outlines its anti-bullying and harassment policy” and has a “direct link to the formal complaint form — something that wasn’t made available to the Maschkas when they were reporting the bullying against Berkley.”
Sources:
Parents who say daughter was bullied for 4 years get $150K settlement with Waukee schools
Waukee parents file lawsuit against school district, administrators after daughter was bullied
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