Daughter Dies After Bullying: Tragedy and Prevention
Both the police and the State Administrator essentially exonerated the school and the municipality.
– Neither the school nor the Pedagogical-psychological service (PP service) did their job. The money is not the point here. We want an apology from the municipality and we don’t want others to experience this, say parents Bengt and Monica Frantzen in Sola municipality in Rogaland.
They have now sent a process letter to the municipality and are filing a compensation claim. The two believe that the municipality – through gross negligence – is to blame for Emely’s death.
– Both the State Administrator and the police acquitted the municipality because activity plans had been drawn up. But they didn’t help at all! I don’t understand how they can acquit someone without checking the contents of the plans and how it worked on Emely. This is bad, say the two.
The Frantzen couple complain, among other things, that the activity plans are very similar to each other and that they did little to help Emely. They partly worked against their purpose, and put unilateral pressure on Emely to change, the parents believe.
– The school has never managed to arrange and create a safe school environment for Emely. That is the core of the case, adds the couple Frantzen’s lawyer, Svein Kjetil Lode Svendsen at Elden Advokatbyrå.
The municipality will be acquitted
– In its response, the municipality has submitted documentation that the municipality cannot be held liable for damages for the tragic outcome of this case. We have therefore submitted a claim that the municipality should be acquitted, says the municipality’s lawyer Frode Lauareid at KS Advokatene to Dagbladet.
He adds:
– The municipality has a duty to provide sound services, but also has a duty to be a responsible employer for those who actually provide the services. In this case, the municipality believes that the staff have done their best to ensure that the student has a safe and good school environment.
He reminds us that there is a long way between not being successful and being liable for damages.
– An acknowledgment of liability for damages would be the same as saying that the employees have failed. The municipality believes that the employees have not failed, emphasizes Lauareid.
He nevertheless says that the case is tragic and that the municipality’s side has strong sympathy for the parents, siblings and other relatives.
– Should have had help sooner
– Emely had impressive language difficulties, and should have had help earlier. The PP service should have ensured that she was followed up by a speech therapist as early as three years old when the health center responded, says professor of special pedagogy Marie-Lisbet Amundsen at the University of Southeast Norway.
Amundsen has been summoned as a witness in the case. She points out that as long as the PP service around the country has too little capacity, and the schools lack special educational expertise, this will happen again.
– Offenses occur daily in Norwegian schools, and many children and young people with neurodiagnoses, functional impairments and learning disabilities lose all faith in their own abilities and resources, says Amundsen.
Sola municipality does not wish to comment on either the legality or the PP service, but will possibly deal with it during the trial.
Will “take the brunt”
Amundsen and the Frantzen couple agree that there are many people in this situation, where they do not get the help they are entitled to from the municipality. The Frantzen couple want to “take the brunt” so that others do not experience the same as they did when they lost their daughter.
– The State Trustee only determined that activity plans had been drawn up, so the school had done nothing wrong, as the State Trustee saw it, point out Bengt and Monica Frantzen.
The municipality has a duty to ensure a good and safe school environment for everyone. The activity plan must state which measures the school will put in place to stop bullying, who will carry out the measures, and when these will be evaluated.
Compensation claim
The summons is a compensation claim against Sola municipality, which the two therefore believe to have caused Emely’s death through their negligence. She was bullied especially from third grade, and in January 2023 she took her own life, aged just 12.
She was referred to the PP service at the age of three. But it wasn’t until the age of seven that she was diagnosed with “impressive language disorder”, a diagnosis that requires close speech therapy follow-up from an early age.
In the summons, the parents claim that, in part, measures were implemented that were directly harmful to Emely. The parents notified the school a number of times. In the winter of 2022, the bullying reached a peak, according to the summons, when Emely was repeatedly encouraged to take her own life
Suicidal
In January 2022, Emely was described by the GP as inclined to take her own life (suicidal). In March 2022, she was described as “acutely” suicidal as a result of “very serious bullying over a long period of time”.
Dysjaland school, where Emely attended, made a total of 12 activity plans for the bullied girl in the period 2018-2022. These did not help Emely to get better, and to some extent were aimed at Emely having to change, the parents conclude.
In 2023, the State Administrator in Rogaland, on his own initiative following Dagbladet’s mention, carried out an inspection at Dysjaland school. The state administrator found that activity plans had been drawn up and that it was therefore in order. On the other hand, the municipality received criticism because the internal control had not picked up such a serious case of bullying.
No one evaluated the content of the plans and – as Dagbladet has written before – no one evaluates what the PP service does.
– When bullying is uncovered, it must be made clear which measures the school is putting in place, and whether this has led to change. It is not good enough that measures are introduced if it does not change the situation for the person who is being bullied, says Amundsen.
The case is scheduled for May, and five days have been set aside for it.
– We hope politicians get the Emely case and her life, so that change can be implemented, say Emely’s parents.