A four-day jury trial in York-Poquoson Circuit Court will begin today to sort out a $10 million wrongful death lawsuit filed against the York County School Division over the death of 16-year-old Christian Taylor, who hanged himself at his home in May 2010.
The lawsuit, filed in July 2010 by Taylor’s mother, Alise Williams, names four current and former employees of Grafton High School: former Principal Paul Hopkins, former Assistant Principal Craig Reed, current Assistant Principal Karen Fahringer and Counselor Joseph Erfe. The suit alleges school officials did not protect Taylor, a freshman at the time of his death, from bullies after his mother requested intervention.
In September 2012, York-Poquoson Circuit Court Judge R. Bruce Long ruled the four employees have sovereign immunity for some of the charges in the lawsuit. Sovereign immunity does not invalidate a claim, though it does protect state employees who were acting in their official capacity. Sovereign immunity exists only for some charges originally in the lawsuit.
Long’s ruling concluded a lengthy series of hearings to determine whether the four employees were eligible to be protected under sovereign immunity. Defense lawyer David Corrigan argued his clients were performing government functions and that teachers exercise judgment and discretion in all of their supervision of students. Williams’ lawyer, Oldric LaBell, argued the defendants had a duty to report instances of abuse and to protect students. LaBell said sovereign immunity cannot be applied in cases where gross negligence can be proven.
The suit said an unnamed male student aggressively and habitually harassed, verbally abused, insulted, threatened and bullied Taylor, who began attending Grafton High School in December 2009 after moving to Virginia from Texas. It said the unnamed student presented an unreasonable risk to the security and well-being of other students. Williams said she told school officials the unnamed student had said to Taylor “you need to just go ahead and kill yourself and get it over with.”
The State Board of Education and the school division both require the prevention of all verbal abuse, according to the suit. The case files have been sealed to prevent the dissemination of confidential records from the Department of Social Services and guidance and disciplinary records from the school division.
Any damages awarded in the case would be for medical and hospital expenses for the injuries that caused Taylor’s death, funeral expenses, financial losses suffered by the beneficiaries and mental anguish and loss suffered by the beneficiaries. The suit names nine beneficiaries: Williams, William Taylor, father; Andrew Juntti, stepfather; Greg Juntti, brother; Tristan Taylor, brother; William Juntti, brother; Faith Juntti, sister; Hunter Burrell, brother; Caitlyn Juntti, sister.
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