Hearing In Lawsuit Against York School Administrators Scheduled For Today

By Amber Lester Kennedy Wednesday, January 05, 2011

A hearing for a civil lawsuit that alleges York County school administrators contributed to a student suicide is scheduled for today.

Alise Williams is seeking $10 million in damages from four school officials for the wrongful death of her son, Christian Taylor, who hanged himself at home on May 31. Williams has said her son, who was a freshman at Grafton High School at the time, had been bullied since transferring from Texas in December 2009. The hearing will begin at 9 a.m. today in the York-Poquoson Circuit Court.

The lawsuit lists former Grafton High Principal Paul Hopkins, Assistant Principal Craig Reed, Assistant Principal Karen Fahringer and counselor Joseph Erfe. School security officer Deputy Ralph Hood was originally named in the suit, but the case against him was dismissed because resource officers have no power to suspend or expel students. Hopkins left York County over the summer to take a position as director of exceptional education for Henrico County schools.

The court papers, filed July 30, say school officials did not protect Taylor from bullies, despite his mother’s requests for intervention. She met with administrators twice in May; at the first meeting, she says she told administrators that a student had told her son, “You need to just go ahead and kill yourself and get it over with.” The primary allegation of the suit is that administrators had a duty to ensure the safety and well-being of all students in the school.

At a Sept. 30 hearing, the school administrators entered a demurrer plea, which challenges the legal sufficiency of a claim, but were denied. Visiting Judge R. Bruce Long overruled the plea on the basis that defense lawyer David Corrigan was unable to prove the administrators had no duty to ensure the student’s safety and well-being.