Court ruling appealed in school bullying case
Toolbox
By Gordon Dritschilo STAFF WRITER - Published: October 7, 2009
A man who says his sons were bullied at Fair Haven Grade School plans to continue his legal battle against the administrators there he said did not do enough to protect his family.
Frank Venturella filed an appeal last week in Rutland Superior Court asking that a verdict against him be thrown out. He said Judge William Cohen's instructions to the jury in his lawsuit against the school were incorrect.
Venturella said that while he was at first willing to accept the verdict and move on, his sons asked him to keep fighting.
"I didn't want to let them down," he said.
Venturella claims that when his family arrived in Fair Haven in 2003, his sons' New York accents and one's speech impediment marked them as different. Other students targeted them, he said, until one suffered a broken tooth and both were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
The family claimed that complaints to the school brought no relief, and that the administration's failure to protect the boys amounted to a violation of the Vermont Public Accommodations Act. A jury disagreed, deliberating for less than four hours in August before finding for the school.
Representing himself in the appeal, Venturella said an error in the wording of the jury instructions should render that decision invalid.
Venturella said that the law requires that the behavior of the other students must have objectively substantially undermined or detracted from or interfered with his sons' access to education to qualify as "harassment."
Cohen, he said, replaced the word "or" in those requirements with the word "and." He said that word change created a standard that was impossible to meet.
John Zawistoski, who represents the school district, said he believed the instructions were "proper and in accordance with Vermont law" and that while he has received a notice of intent to appeal, he did not have the details of Venturella's claim.
Venturella said he was comfortable representing himself in the appeal
"This was my baby for three, three and half years, until I decided it would be better to have a trial attorney at the trial," he said. "This part is easier because the hard part is done. The trial is over. Now, the law is the law is the law. It's black and white."
Venturella said he had taken criticism from people who believed a verdict against the school would hurt taxpayers and that he wanted to point out that the school has a liability insurance policy and that he paid some of the taxes that paid for that policy.
gordon.dritschilo@rutlandherald.com
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