School officials were not negligent in the suicide of a 12-year-old girl who hanged herself after years of teasing over her interest in the Wiccan religion and other matters, an appeals court says.
Tempest Smith, a seventh-grader at Lincoln Park Middle School, killed herself in her bedroom on Feb. 20, 2001. After her death, family members found a diary in which she wrote about the teasing.
Denessa Smith sued the Lincoln Park Public Schools, saying teachers and school officials were grossly negligent because they were aware of the teasing of her daughter but failed to stop it.
The suit also said school officials violated Tempest's constitutional right to an education without being harassed. And it said that officials violated her civil rights by ignoring religious discrimination against her, The Detroit News reported Tuesday.
Wayne Circuit Judge Robert Colombo in 2002 threw out the constitutional claim. The other two claims were heard by the appeals court.
On Wednesday, appeals court Judges Henry Saad, David Sawyer and Karen Hood found that school officials are legally immune from liability in the negligence claim. The judges also ruled teachers and other school personnel were not responsible for Tempest's suicide.
"The ... cause of Tempest's psychological harm was student-on-student teasing and harassment, not (the) defendants alleged failure to . .. stop the students," the judges wrote.
The claim of civil rights violation now will be heard by Colombo.