Lawsuit: CT School and Far-Left Superintendent Allowed Extreme Bullying, Blamed the Parents Who Reported It

GRANBY, CT- Granby is a small town located northwest of Hartford, the capital city of Connecticut. It is widely considered a “sleepy” town of just under 11,000 people, boasting a mix of suburban and rural areas. It is also the scene of a bullying controversy that has led one family to file a lawsuit against the Granby Public Schools, according to the Hartford Courant. 

According to the lawsuit, the girl’s parents reported the ongoing sexual harassment to the Granby Police Department after school administrators did nothing to intervene. The suit alleges that after the family contacted the police department, the school system began a system of retaliation against the victim. Moreover, they continued to take no action on behalf of the victim. 

The suit alleges that threats by a boy and his friends continued for a period of eight months, with no disciplinary action being taken against the perpetrators. The situation hit its apex at a town-sponsored dance, leading the mother to withdraw her daughter from Granby schools and enroll her in a private school. 

According to The Courant, the suit was filed last month in Hartford Superior Court, with attorney Anthony Spinella representing the victim and her mother. The court allowed the plaintiff’s names to be redacted, so neither is mentioned in the legal filings. 

The Courant stated that they reached out to School Superintendent Cheri Burke via email; however, she refused to comment on the case due to pending litigation. 

Burke was the subject of previous reporting by Law Enforcement Today on a couple of occasions, including once for her "woke" Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion program, when she served as superintendent of the Glastonbury (CT) Public Schools. That included a presentation on antisemitism featuring a presentation by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which touts itself as fighting anti-Jewish hate but which is in fact a rabid supporter of left-wing politics. 

To conceal their actions during Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) committee meetings, Burke refused to permit parent observers to attend the meetings. Only hand-selected parents were allowed to join the committee. Long story short, it took a complaint to the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission for the parent to gain access to those meetings. 

Burke’s travels then brought her to the Granby Public Schools, with controversy quickly following. A parent attending an open house at their child’s school (LET CEO Kyle Reyes) was surprised to see the teacher wearing a pin that read, “Someone I love is LGBT.” Reyes, believing that parents should not bring their personal beliefs into the classroom, then engaged in a series of emails with Burke. After several emails, Burke “lawyered up,” referring Reyes to the Board of Education’s attorney. 

Reyes then requested information on LGBTQ-oriented book titles that were available in school libraries. Again, after being stonewalled, Reyes had to file FOIA requests to obtain the information he was looking for. 

This is who Superintendent Cheri Burke is. 

Recently, Burke has incorrectly claimed that the school is protected against certain FOIA requests that Law Enforcement Today has filed pertaining to the targeting of another parent - a conservative - who served on the school board.  That school board member was targeted by leftist school board members - one of whom proudly posted an anti-ICE social media photo and shortly after being called out, removed it.

Additionally, there are now serious concerns by the family who filed this most recently lawsuit against the school system that the school may have knowingly shared the identities and private cell phone numbers of the parents with several people after the reporting of the story.  Not only that, but there's also reason to believe that the school leaked confidential information to the reporter who broke the story - which may be in violation of several laws.  Of course we don't expect Burke, who has also been engaged of systematically covering up bullying in the schools against conservative students, to respond to inquiries.

In the lawsuit, the district is being represented by the North Haven, Connecticut law firm of Williams, Walsh & Connor, which has asked the court to give the defendants until December 8 to respond to the lawsuit. 

According to the suit, the harassment began near the beginning of the 2023-24 school year, when the victim was 12 and starting eighth grade at Granby Memorial Middle School. Spinella gave this account, according to The Courant:

During the school day, a boy and a group of his friends allegedly threatened to physically and sexually assault the girl. Ten days later, her parents met with Heather Tanis, who had just been appointed principal the previous month, and Peter Bogen, an interim administrator at the school, and filled out an official “Report of Suspected Bullying or Teen Dating Violence.” 

Bogen investigated, and the following week, the school administration developed a safety plan for the girl, which stated that all school staff would be notified not to put her in classes with the boy or his friends. 

Months later, the boy and his friends allegedly surrounded the girl in the school cafeteria and made “sexualized and threatening comments to her. “Plaintiff had to run down the hall into a classroom to escape and notified a teacher,” the suit reads. 

The parents met with Tanis again four days later; however, within about a month, a substitute teacher sent the victim to a classroom where the boy was to retrieve an item. The suit alleges that the boy “stared menacingly” at her. 

Despite the alleged existence of a “safety plan,” it didn’t appear that either the substitute or the classroom teacher was aware of it. The victim’s father complained to Alex Schwartz, a newly promoted assistant principal, who told him that schools don’t typically notify substitutes about a student safety plan, the suit alleged. 

Then in May, the town’s youth services bureau hosted an eighth-grade dance at a municipal building, attended by more than 100 eighth graders, however, it was not sponsored by the Granby Public Schools. 

“At the dance, the (male) student and a group of his friends surrounded plaintiff and her friends and called them sexualized and racist language,” the suit claims. “The plaintiff and the girls with her were scared and crying.” 

Dance chaperones had to intervene, and a youth services coordinator told the boy and his friends to leave the girl and her friends alone, however, he allegedly “engaged in more bullying and harassing behavior towards plaintiff when she and a friend walked outside to leave,” the suit continued. 

The girl was instructed to report the incident to the school administration the next school day, and sent a letter to the parents reading, “The school is aware of what happened and is addressing the incident. The youth service bureau will continue to work with them as they address the harassment.” 

The victim’s mother said Tanis told her the school “would partner” with Granby police about the matter, however refused to discuss what happened, contending it happened off school grounds. However, when the police got involved the next day, Tanis told the mother that she had spoken to the boy and his friends, who denied any involvement, leading one to believe that Tanis disregarded the information provided by the youth services bureau. 

“Granby police ultimately closed the case because the school (administration) had taken it upon themselves to investigate and interview the students accused of wrongdoing,” the suit contends. 

However, Burke then claimed that school administrators couldn’t take any action because the family had contacted the police, the suit reads. 

The lawsuit alleges that the Granby Public Schools “retaliated” against the victim because her parents notified police, however, it doesn’t elaborate further, The Courant reported. The suit further alleges that the school administration knew the boy had “a troubled history,” but still failed to protect the victim. It further alleges that school administrators didn’t follow their own policies, nor did they keep records documenting the series of bullying allegations. 

The suit is seeking unspecified financial damages, alleging emotional and psychological harm to the victim due to the school system’s negligence.” 

Connecticut’s Department of Education website addresses bullying and harassment as follows:

“Research demonstrates that academic achievement improves in schools where students feel physically and emotionally safe and where school cultures support reasonable rules that are carefully explained and fairly enforced. A healthy learning community that is physically, emotionally, and intellectually safe is the foundation for a comprehensive high-quality education…” 

Not in Granby, apparently.