Dive Brief:

• The Kentucky Supreme Court will hear a case Wednesday to determine whether or not a school can be held responsible for failing to stop bullying that led to a student's suicide.
• Eight years ago, then-eighth-grader Stephen Patton took his own life after being bullied and taunted by a few of his peers at Allen Central Middle School in Eastern, KY.
• Patton's mother filed the lawsuit claiming four teachers, two superintendents, and the school's principal were all aware that her son was being bullied but did nothing to mitigate the situation. 

Dive Insight:

This is not the first time schools have been named as defendants in bullying cases. In March, a New Jersey district being sued for not intervening in bullying made news when it requested to add students as third-party defendants.

Bullying is a major issue at schools, and while there is a lot of kumbaya talk, educators and administrators are often ill-equipped to actually handle the situation. Making sure the adults on campus have professional development on bullying, as well as real techniques for diffusing situations, is key. Often when bullying is not addressed in schools, it's not because the administrators don't care—it's because they genuinely don't know how to stop the behavior from happening.