COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A lawsuit filed last year over a bullying case at Harrison High School was dismissed by a Cobb County judge this week on sovereign immunity grounds.
The suit had been filed by the family of Jorge Santa. The student was suspended from school and at one point faced felony charges in 2019 over what his family attorney characterized as defending himself from two other students who "accosted him, stole from him, verbally abused him, used racial slurs and then physically assaulted him."
The family had filed the suit against Arthur O'Neill, who was an assistant principal at the school, and Ivant Fields, the school resource officer in the case, over how they handled things.
Judge Mary Staley Clark, in dismissing the suit, ruled that its contention was based on the actions of O'Neill and Fields in their official capacities, and so Georgia's sovereign immunity protections for government entities extended to those actions.
"Under the doctrine of official immunity, an official is immune from liability for discretionary acts performed within the scope of his official authority if the actions are done without actual malice," Judge Clark wrote in her order.
"A governmental entity, such as the Cobb County School District, cannot be held liable for punitive damages since such an award would violate public policy," the judge added. "It follows then, that since suing a school district employee in his official capacity is tantamount to suing the school district itself, then any claim for punitive damages against (O'Neill) and/or (Fields) in their official capacities is barred."
In Georgia, immunity may only be waived by a specific act of the state legislature. In the November elections, voters approved an amendment to the Georgia Constitution to scale back the state's immunity protections, but that would not apply retroactively to a case such as this.
"We strongly disagree with the Court’s decision and will appeal the matter," the family attorney, Mitch Skandalakis, said in an email. "The problem is that Cobb County is ignoring bullying across the board which is significantly harming victims and empowering bullies. The school, in this case, did not have any discretion other than to investigate the matter as bullying, which they did not do. The only investigation was performed by the Cobb County DA’s office, which led to their dismissing the felony charges."
The judge rejected the argument that the school's actions did not fall under their discretionary protections.
"The decisions on how to carry out an investigation of the underlying incident, who to question during that investigation, how to punish Jorge A. Santa, whether to bring criminal charges against Jorge A. Santa, and how to punish the other students involved in the underlying incident all require the exercise of discretion," Judge Clark wrote. "As such, all of Plaintiff's claims here go to discretionary functions. Official immunity therefore bars Plaintiff's claims."
The school district said in a statement: "When this lawsuit began, we said we looked forward to the facts of this case being adjudicated in court, not through social media. This is a final judgment which was found in the District's favor and our comments from one year ago are as true now as they were then."
Skandalakis said that the family would turn to the legislature to help advance their case.
"In addition to appealing, we will be seeking help from the Georgia legislature by amending the current laws on the books to protect victims of bullies, which includes counties like Cobb bullying the victims by charging them with crimes," he said.