A New Jersey school district has agreed to pay $4.2 million to settle a lawsuit by a middle school student who was paralyzed after a known bully punched him in the abdomen.
The settlement made public last week was between the Ramsey district and the family of Sawyer Rosenstein, who had complained to the district about being bullied.
The family’s lawsuit alleged school officials knew or should have known that the boy’s attacker had violent tendencies and that they failed to comply with a state anti-bullying law, said the Rosensteins’ lawyer.
Two days after the assault, the 12-year-old developed a blood clot in a major artery that supplies blood to the spine, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
The Ramsey board of education released a statement last week denying wrongdoing and saying it was the district’s insurance carriers that decided to enter into the settlement and will pay it out.
