In a lawsuit filed in September 2015, a male seventh-grader who claimed to have been bullied since the fourth grade said that a math teacher threw him to the ground and broke his leg while he was trying to defend himself from a bully’s attack.

In their lawsuit, the student, identified as Z.B., and his parents said that Z.B. constant exposure to bullying was reported but that school officials failed to protect him.  According to the lawsuit, the bullying worsened in 7th grade when a another student, N.G. “pointed a realistic looking toy gun at Z.B. in school,” an act which allegedly netted N.G. eighteen months of probation.  Z.B. claimed that when two other students threatened him, he received detention for being threatened.

According to the suit, Z.B. was “sucker punched” in the face on June 9, 2014 by student D.B. and that “while D.B. was physically attacking Z.B., Pennsauken School employee John DelGrippo violently pulled Z.B. away from the scene and threw Z.B. to the ground” causing Z.B. to “incur a bone fracture” and other injuries.  An employee named “John DelGrippo” is listed on the school board’s website as being a math teacher at Phifer Middle School.

The lawsuit is presently in discovery phase and no proceedings are currently scheduled.  Z.B. and his parents are being represented by Gregg L. Zeff of Mount Laurel and the school district is being defended by William S. Donio of Cooper Levenson of Atlantic City.

Chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project. Please send all comments to [email protected]