Thirteen-year-old Gabriel Palacios took his own life earlier this year. His family, who announced a legal claim filed against the Coronado Unified School District on Thursday, said leadership at Coronado Middle School did not take concerns about cyberbullying seriously enough.
This fall, Orsolya Mezei would have seen her son off to eighth grade. Instead, she is remembering her teenager and calling for change after Gabriel took his own life this past spring.
“My son Gabriel was beautiful, smart, fun and, above all, kind and loving,” Mezei said.
Gabriel’s family said his Tourette’s syndrome made him the subject of bullying, both at school and online. The attorney speaking for the family, John Gomez, said the boy’s disability led to improper disciplinary action, showing “a troubling misunderstanding” of his IEP, the Individualized Education Program document that provides accommodations for students with special needs.
“Not only did [Coronado Middle School] leaders break the law by failing to protect the report of bullying, they broke Gabriel’s spirit by ignoring him, unjustly disciplining and taking away his hope and happiness,” Gomez said.
The bullying allegedly reached its peak when students started sharing a nude video of Gabriel. According to Gomez, the boy had been taking a video due to concerns he had about an area around his private parts, and he accidentally sent the video to his Snapchat contacts. Gomez said Gabriel’s parents notified the school and provided the name of one of the students circulating the video. The attorney said the family was told school leadership approached that student, who denied any knowledge of the incident.
“To the best of our knowledge, CMS did not take any further action against stopping the video, investigating the allegations or stop the bullying from continuing,” Gomez said.
In a statement, the district said:
“The Coronado Unified School District is aware of the legal matter currently pending. However, as a matter of policy, the district does not comment on ongoing or pending litigation. We remain committed to transparency and will provide updates as appropriate once the legal process has concluded.”
The president of the Coronado Middle School Parent Teacher Organization, Mercedes Smith, spoke up on Thursday.
“In my opinion, the uncomfortable truth we must take responsibility for is that we failed Gabriel and we failed his family,” Smith said.
Gabriel’s family hopes taking responsibility breeds change.
“I watched my son die,” said Mezei. “Gabriel did not deserve this. No one deserves this, and it needs to be stopped.”
If the legal claim is denied by the district, the family said, they will then file a lawsuit.