A lawsuit filed Monday against the Seminole County School Board alleges teachers and administrators didn't do enough to prevent the bullying that led to a 14-year-old's suicide at a Lake Mary middle school last year.
Lamar Hawkins III, of Sanford, killed himself with his father's gun in a Greenwood Lakes Middle School bathroom stall on Sept. 10, 2014.
During the lawsuit announcement on Monday, attorney Matt Morgan said Lamar went missing for hours and school officials didn't go looking for him — even after another student found a spent gun shell casing in the school's bathroom and reported it to a teacher.
Lamar's family reported him missing after his mother went to the school to pick him up about 5 p.m. and he was nowhere to be found. Deputies found Lamar in the bathroom with a gunshot wound to his head about 11 p.m.
Lamar's family is suing the School Board for negligent supervision, negligent failure to adequately discipline bullies and negligent failure to supervise and account for Lamar's absence before his death.
"We know that just days before he took his life at school that he was literally slapped out of his chair during an altercation," Morgan told reporters at a press conference Monday.
"He took his life at school to send a message, and the message was clear," Morgan continued: " 'These bullies drove me to this point so I will commit this act on school grounds so that they know they did this to me.' "
Walt Griffin, the superintendent of Seminole County Public Schools, released the following comment about the lawsuit via email on Monday.
"I will not comment on litigation matters, " he said, "but the School Board will vigorously defend Greenwood Lakes Middle Schools, its administrators and staff regarding this incident."
After Lamar's death, investigators said the gun the eighth grader used to shoot himself belonged to his father, Lamar Hawkins Sr.
The day Lamar shot himself, his father mistakenly grabbed his wife's keys when he left the house — leaving the key to the gun box at home.
Lamar didn't leave behind a suicide note. Friends, teachers and family members said Lamar never talked about suicide.
According to the Sanford family, years of bullying led to Lamar's suicide. Because health complications stunted his growth — he was about 4 feet, 5 inches — Lamar became an easy target for bullies.
At the time, Seminole County Public School officials referenced the School Board's comprehensive bullying policy which, they said, is fully enforced in all of their schools.
The School Board's policy manual defines bullying and cyberbullying as unwanted and repeated written, verbal or physical behavior that is systematically used to inflict physical hurt or distress on another student.
After dozens of interviews, Sheriff's Office investigators found that Lamar and his twin sister were picked on and called names but that they were not physically harmed except for a lunch room fight two days before Lamar's suicide involving Lamar and another student.
Morgan said he has received hundreds of phone calls from parents in the area and nationally, complaining that their children have also been bullied at school.
He added that a few parents of students at Greenwood Lakes Middle School also called about bullying at their school.
"It appeared to me that there is a big problem at that school," Morgan said about Greenwood Lakes Middle School. That was my opinion as a result of the conversations I had with these parents."
twalden@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5620
Rene Stutzman contributed to this story.
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