It’s a blast from the bullying past!
The Daily News reports that a college student is suing a kid who bullied him eight years ago at a ritzy Manhattan middle school and gave him a broken nose (right). He’s also suing the school for failing to protect him, to the tune of $1.5 million in damages.
Writes the News:
In a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Eric Giray—now a sophomore at Brandeis University — accuses Daniel Dworakowski—now a sophomore at Cornell—of taunting him for years before shoving him into the school’s bleachers on Oct. 15, 2004.
Giray, who attended Calhoun for the sixth, seventh and eighth grades, broke his nose and needed 18 stitches to close the gashes, according to his attorney Ric Cherwin.
Dworakowski’s mom’s side of the story:
How about we take this to the next level?
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“Oh, please. That was not a bullying. That was just an accident. A teacher told us it was an accident and nothing else.”
The bullied kid’s attorney is pulling out some serious punches, though:
“On his life, Eric said Daniel with malice and intent in his eyes pushed Eric extremely hard and quickly so that Eric had no time to react and smashed him into the bleachers.”
The malice and intent was in his eyes, you guys! Our prediction: the judge is going to laugh at the fact that the case was brought eight years later (when anti-bullying sentiment is hitting a peak) and dismiss this suit as soon as he can.
FreddyMertz
It probably be dismissed..but now the bully’s name is out there and..maybe this could be a start…bullied kids/parents should sue their bully/parents. Laws don’t seem to stop it maybe a hit in the pocket book will.
JayKay
Couldn’t fight back the right way, so he gets a lawyer to do it eight years later…
What a whiny little bitch.
randy
Sure, it will likely get laughed out of court. But his family and the school still have to hire an attorney to defend themselves, and they have to go through depositions and meet with their attorney many times. All that is time consuming and very stressful. And you never know exactly what a judge will do — he may let the case proceed. Not fun.
So even if it gets thrown out of court, it sends a signal to parents and schools everywhere — the effects of bullying aren’t going away. The school’s attorney will advise them to deal with any bullying now before it gets worse or leads to another lawsuit.
This is how we, slowly, change the culture.
I remember that in the 50s and 60s, raping women wasn’t such a big deal. But with more and more criminal actions brought against men, and greater awareness, rape became something that was treated seriously. The same will happen with bullying, but it takes time and cases like this help it along.
nikko
That picture breaks my heart- so sad and outrageous. Go Eric!!
WillBFair
The suit would be great except for the 1.5 million. That’s outrageous and totally paints Giray as a profiteer. A more reasonable figure would have been better pr. As it is, he’s making us all look bad.
ousslander
sorry he had to go through that. I wonder why the parents never called the cops and pressed charges.
Mike
Agreed JayKay. Bullies expect people NOT to fight back or even just verbally say something back to them, and then when people who they torment and bully do this they don’t know what to do and stop bullying people since they are cowards at heart.
JayKKK
@JayKay: You’re so absolutely full of wisdom. It was the kid’s fault he was bullied and savaged! And it’s the fault of liberals for making homophobes so angry. If liberals didn’t make equality an issue, then none of us would be bullied anymore. It’s time for us to collectively go back in the closet.
Okama
@ousslander: I agree with you, but if you read the mother’s statement, it seems pretty clear that she was more willing to believe the school’s statement that it was an accident than her own son. And by the way, for everyone questioning him because he hasn’t come forward until now, don’t forget that if his mother wasn’t going to even believe him, she most definitely wasn’t going to help him sue the school. In fact, he may have just recently turned 18, and thus is only now able to sue for himself (I may be wrong on the specifics, but I’m just speculating).
By the way, the article doesn’t actually say he was bullied for being gay. Are we sure this wasn’t un-related to homophobia? (not that that would make it okay, of course).
Okama
@Okama: Sorry, I just realised that it was the bully’s mother who said that. I take back what I said about her.
Although that still makes her a horrible person.
KyleW
Mike and Jaykay, are you never going to tire of trotting your macho 1950s Marlboro man wisdom about every kid who gets bullied?
All of this nonsense about bullies being cowards at heart is a gross oversimplification. Unless you know the motivation for the bullying (dislike, performing to a crowd, re-empowerment, or outright sadism) you can’t possibly know how a bully will react – by leaving the kid alone, or coming in with a gun the next day. And that’s if the victim even has the remotest chance of triumphing over the bully in the first place.
Even if, as you suggest (in a massive over-generalisation), the bully is a coward, he has most likely chosen a victim where there is a size or capability mismatch in the first place.
Simply saying to every tormented kid “You should have fought back” is absolutely inane and shows a total lack of understanding for the many nuances of such a situation.
And that’s before we ever bring in the complications of attending a school that has a zero tolerance policy towards bullying; a policy that disadvantages those who respect authority, and empowers the bullies…
KyleW
I have to say, any lawyer who uses the term “On his life, my client swears…” looks likely to crash and burn really soon. What next, hoping to get a pinky swear admitted as evidence?
I do feel for the little guy (as was), but seriously – 8 years later? No chance in hell. Who, but him, even remembers with sufficient clarity, what happened that far back?
Bailey
@KyleW:
I’m pretty sure the guy who got his nose broken remembers.
Bailey
As long as it’s in the statute of limitations, it’s a valid case. Doesn’t matter if it’s 8 days or 8 years.
Jason B
I am so very sorry for the torment that this kid has obviously been through. I would love the opportunity to teach Daniel Dworakowski a hard lesson. What gives him or anyone else the right to harass and taunt?
Not this shit again
99.9% of people have been bullied and 99.9% of people have been bullied. As one gay male friend of mine says, “Bullying has become the new AIDS”
cwm
@Not this shit again:
Not sure what that means. But I’d guess it’s something about which you’ve decided, “I don’t care.”
Belize
@JayKay: “Couldn’t fight back the right way, so he gets a lawyer to do it eight years later…
What a whiny little bitch.”
Go back to milking your cows, Old Mc Donald. Your Michelle Bachmann of a wife might discover that you’re looking at a Pro-Gay website and lock you up in the kitchen again.
@KyleW: “All of this nonsense about bullies being cowards at heart is a gross oversimplification.”
Of course it’s a gross oversimplification. People like JayKay are grossly simple people.
Belize
@Mike: LOL! So basically, the bullies you’ve encountered are just as simple minded as you are. Wonderful.
I don’t know how they do it there in your cow town, but I wouldn’t be surprised if your “bullying” encounter involved you getting accidentally shoved into an udder or whatever and you thought that you’re being bullied so you caused a queen-sized scene.
Go back to the barn with JayKay, hick. You still have beard family to feed before you run on down for a little hoedown in town square.
Hephaestion
I’m glad Eric is getting back at Daniel Dworakowski. Dworakowski needs to learn a lesson. Even if the case goes nowhere, everyone now knows that Dworakowski was (and maybe still is) an immoral bully. Just getting that information spread across the US makes the suit worthwhile. Bravo Eric!
Blah
I hate this site. I always eats my comments.
Anyhow. Rewrite here, so I’ll give you the abridge version. Case still w/in SOL if plaintiff less than 19 years old. 1 year SOL for intentional tort in NYS. Does not begin to run until minor plaintiff turns 19.
Non-lawyers get their panties in a wad about high monetary demands like $1.5M. These are not made so high b/c lawyers think that’s what they’ll win. These are made high, because plaintiffs are limited in damages to what they requested in the complaint. So…if a jury awards $1M but you only asked for $2000, you only get $2000. It’s bad lawyering to lowball on a demand.
And it’s become a bit of a silly game in NYS, b/c we’re required to list actual monetary demand max (e.g., $1.5 M), instead of a great than amount which is common most places (e.g., monetary award in an amount greater than $10,000).
Jora2
“Oh, please. That was not a bullying. That was just an accident. A teacher told us it was an accident and nothing else.”
Yes, I remember teachers standing by watching me get bullied and doing nothing about it. I still lack respect for them. I am not surprised at the teacher’s supposed statement.
I wish this young man success in his lawsuit. Perhaps it will make a bully think twice, or hopefully, get a teacher to act instead of simply watching with amusement.
KyleW
@Bailey: “I’m pretty sure the guy who got his nose broken remembers.”
That’s by no means certain. People, rewrite their own recollection to favour their world view all the time. And in a court of law, this boy’s word is worth less than nothing.
Don’t get me wrong – if he was bullied, and the broken nose was an example, I do think that people should be brought to account, but isn’t there a statute of imitations of this stuff.
I think he has absolutely no chance of winning this case in a court, but I suspect he has brought it in the hopes of a embarrassing the school into a pre-trial settlement, or to get the bully’s name out there. I don’t really agree with either. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since he was 13.
JayKKK
@KyleW: Amen. We need more bullying apologists like you. After all, there is absolutely no way someone could completely remember a traumatic bullying experience like Eric does. You tell that scum how it is!
Red Meat
So it’s okay for rape and domestic abuse victims to come out with their case 5, 10, 15 years later, but bullied, punched, and mentally harassed victims must overcome their own shame and self-guilt in the matter of hours/days to report to the school or police? Fuck me.
Mike
Belize, actually I’m from a major east coast city. I don’t live in a rural area at all. I agree with others that this kid should have actually went to teachers, school administrators, or the police when the bullying was actually happening and not years later when he’d graduated from highschool.
KyleW
@JayKKK: Jay, I’m not a bullying apologist in the slightest. I founded an anti-bullying program in an international organisation. I am not in any sense saying that this kid deserved to be bullied, that it was acceptable that he was bullied, or that his case was well handled at the time.
What I did say was that simply trying to embarrass the school into a settlement, or humiliate his ALLEGED attacker, without either being afforded due process.
I think it’s piss-poor that the otherr kid’s name is out there, and he is now vilified on this site by people who cannot possibly know the truth, simply on the word of this kid, and because he is now 18.
There is more to this case than meets the eye. The “victim” was bought a computer game by means of apology by the perpetrator. The victim accepted the perpetrator’s apology at the time. And at the time both the teacher and the victim’s mother accepted that this was a genuine accident.
To counter that, it is alleged that this was an organised game of tag, that was taking in the school bleachers, and that the victim’s mother had complained about the other boy on two previous occasions. In spite of that, she still accepted that this incident was a genuine accident.
I think that any court n the land would always ask why there was such a long delay before this boy chose to bring this action, and as Red Meat has raised, it is conceivable that the boy simply waited this long to find the courage, or before he felt that the climate was right for a deserved win, or simply until he could bring the action without needing the consent of his parents.
Equally, it is conceivable, that he simply felt that the climate is right now for a mischeivous or exagerrated case to have a chance in court.
Given the fact that he attended an expensive private school, I feel it is likely that his parents had the means to take things further at the time if they had felt it was appropriate…
So no, not a bullying apologist. I am simply saying that there are PLENTY of reasons to proceed cautiously before rushing to an emotion-fuelled judgement in this case. A judgement which could be every bit as much bullying to a boy who could have been innocent of the charges he is accused of.
The trouble is, so many of us here have been victims ourselves, we often leap to the defence of anybody labelled a victim, without considering all of the facts.
KyleW
@Mike: Mike, in fairness, the boy’s mother complained to the principle on two occasions and was assured that the matter had been “taken care of”. The problem is, and having dealth with schools for over a decade on this issue, no school wishes to be labelled “a bullying school”, (and doubly so for an expensive private school as in this case), so often the complainants are mislabelled as trouble makers, or the matter is brushed under the carpet. By the same token, what 12 year old is going to have the wherewithall to go to the police, if he has already seen his complaints ignored or worse, by the teachers who are supposed to be there to protect him?
I’m not saying this school did mismanage the situation, but it would be very easy to envision how this WAS a failure on behalf of the administration. The boy’s problem will most certainly be proving it.
JayKKK
@KyleW: Why are you going back on your bullying apologist platform? It was very strong and well-articulated. We all know that bullied kids are scum and usually the fault of the bullying is on them – and how dare they try to take legal action! You so effectively communicated that in your earlier post, which I commended you for. I don’t know why you can’t take a compliment.
Chirs Miller
It was the bully’s mother who dismissed it as an accident, not the victim’s mother.
KyleW
@JayKKK: I think clearly that you see exactly what you want to see Jay. It’s a pity, because I agreed with you on some of your earlier points, but apparently you don’t appreciated that these are nuanced issues. Your absolutist views,and sarcasm are not particularly constructive in this discussion. At no point was I a bullying apologist, because at no point have I held that view, so I could hardly be going back on that position. It’s clear from your other posts that you simply want a fight.
It’s in the interests of sensationalist press to make every kid out to be the biggest victim ever, and that it behooves rational thinkers to evaluate these stories in a circumspect manner – a piece of advice that I freely admit I have failed to heed time and again.
I also admit that I sometimes adopt a devil’s advocate position in debates on this site – not for the sake of an argument, but in the interess of seeing aspects of the stories that are not reported by queerty’s absolutely biased “journalists”.
JayKKK
@KyleW: Well at least you redeemed yourself by attacking Queerty’s writers, accusing them of bias. I believe you’re the first person to have ever done that.
But on a serious note, sarcasm is the only way to deal with trolls like you. You people deserve nothing more than ridicule.
KyleW
@JayKKK: Oh I get it – it’s okay to verbally bully ad dismiss those who don’t share your precise opinions because words have no effect on people, only broken noses. Hypocrite.
Fawkes
@KyleW: You know that welfare check you get in the mail each week isn’t an advance on your next book, right?
JayM
@Not this shit again: no. 99.9% of people have no been bullied.
Oh I’m sure a few of the very popular kids in school got a bit of light-hearted ribbing from their friends. But they didn’t get singled out for special ridicule and threatened and beaten up. I never knew any popular kids who were afraid to go to school or feared for their lives at home.
I missed out on a lot of those rights of passage like the senior prom (didn’t want to fake it and ask some random girl). I didn’t go to my high school graduation because I knew that I’d get halfway across the stage and one of my tormentors would yell “faggot” and it would echo through the hall so the whole graduation class and town would be looking at me and see my reaction.
sorry, but 99.9% of people have not been through that.
JayKKK
@KyleW: Verbally bully? You apologize for bullying and then for pointing out that you’re a troll, you call me a bully? It appears you have a few screws loose. Also, thank you for proving my point.