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The El Segundo Unified School District in California must pay $1 million in a bullying lawsuit after a Los Angeles County Superior Court jury found the district negligent in protecting former El Segundo Middle School student Eleri Irons from bullying, according to a verdict filed Aug. 25.

Irons — who was 13 at the time she was “bullied, tormented and verbally assaulted” by three other students between November 2017 and June 2018 — is said to have suffered “significant physical and psychological trauma” from incidents that included the creation of a petition titled “Let’s kill Eleri Irons,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

Irons’ parents were reportedly not informed after educators learned of the petition, and when they did express their concerns to school officials, the issues were allegedly dismissed as teenage drama.

For schools, the main takeaway should be that most states have laws requiring reasonable responses to bullying claims, regardless of the basis of the bullying, said Bobby Truhe, an attorney with KSB School Law. In alleging negligence, a plaintiff is saying a school’s response wasn’t reasonable for the situation or in comparison to other schools' responses to bullying.

“In this case, it seems clear the jury found that the school breached that duty, which caused damages to the plaintiff,” Truhe said. “Schools should understand that noncompliance with their state laws and policies can be used against them when they are challenged based on their response to allegations of bullying.”

In addition to highlighting the legal and financial impact schools can face for neglecting to adequately address bullying incidents, the lawsuit also highlights the long-term impact on victims.

“Students who experience this type of abuse, which in this case included verbal, relational, and cyberbullying, need to be heard and helped,” said Amanda Nickerson, director of the Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention and a professor of school psychology at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, Graduate School of Education. “Schools must work with parents and students to change this behavior to eliminate the hostile environment that bullying creates.”