Seventh-grader Jeffrey Del Bagno was in line to receive his game-day gear during football practice at Inman Middle School on Sept. 7, 2012. It was the Friday evening before the team’s weekend game.
While he was waiting a room away from the coaches, Jeffrey was allegedly surrounded by four of his teammates, who proceeded to “bull-pen” him by surrounding and attacking him violently.
Nearly a year later, Jeffrey’s parents filed a lawsuit against APS and the Inman administration. The case is scheduled to go to court on Jan. 15, 2015.
In the claim, filed on Sept. 6, 2013, the Del Bagnos said that the attack could have been prevented and was handled poorly by school officials. The students responsible for the attack, the Del Bagnos alleged, did not receive adequate discipline.
“The ironic thing about this is that after Jeffrey was attacked, his nose was gushing blood… the coach threw him a towel and said, ‘Go to the bathroom and take care of your nose. By the way, before you leave, make sure you clean up every last drop of blood in the bathroom,’” said Jeff Del Bagno, Jeffrey’s father. “No EMPs [emergency paramedics] were called, no police, no paramedics, nothing.”
Inman administration and football coaches along with APS officials declined to comment because the lawsuit is pending litigation.
According to a report written by the surgeon who treated Jeffrey, Jeffrey’s nasal bone was injured and pushed within millimeters of his cranial cavity. Had the bone reached the cavity, his injury would have been “very serious and life-threatening.” In addition, the injury resulted in the obstruction of eight of his 10 sinuses. The report states that the injury to his nose could have been life-threatening and would require a delicate reconstruction of his nasal bones, nasal airway and sinus cavity. Jeffrey underwent this surgery nearly four months after the incident on Dec. 20.
“He had to have a three-hour under-the-knife corrective surgery,” Del Bagno said. “He was on the operating table for three hours and then had five months of outpatient procedures.”
The day after the incident, Del Bagno sent his son to the football game, in the game day gear he had received, in order to show his attackers that they could not intimidate him, Del Bagno said. He added that the coaches sent Jeffrey home while his attackers played in the game.
According to APS policy, it is mandatory by law for school administration, teachers and other school employees to report crimes. At the time of the incident, a police report was not filed.
In the lawsuit, the Del Bagnos claim that Inman and APS did not protect Jeffrey from the bullies and failed to report the incidents “in order to continue to receive adequate amount of federal funds, to avoid classification as an unsafe school, to hide the significant bullying and gang violence problems at Inman, to uphold the school’s and staff’s reputation and for purposes of their own reward and advancement.”
Additionally, in emails obtained by The Southerner, the Del Bagnos requested surveillance tapes from the camera in the gymasium where the incident occured. Despite multiple requests, the tapes were never recovered. The Georgia Open Records Act requires that tapes such as these must be provided upon request.
According to Del Bagno, this was not the first bullying incident that Jeffrey had experienced. He alleges that Jeffrey had been a victim of bullying for two years, starting in sixth grade. Even after the attack in September, the bullying did not stop.
“Jeffrey was picked on and bullied by a specific group of kids throughout the sixth grade,” Del Bagno said. “And we just waited for the school year to be over and hopefully for the kids to just grow out of this and things would get better.”
Over a year later, as the lawsuit pends litigation, Jeffrey is being homeschooled for eighth grade so he doesn’t have to endure any more bullying. Although Jeffrey suffered physically from this attack, his parents say that his real wounds are psychological.
“The psychological scars, they are not finite,” Del Bagno said. “You don’t get over something like this that quickly. People, they remember vividly being bullied, you know, as younger kids.”
Inman’s principal Paula Herrema abruptly resigned on Jan. 31. In her email to the school community, Herrema stated the reason for the resignation was due to health issues. Thomas Kenner will serve as interim principal for the rest of the school year.
According to a report obtained through an open records request by The Southerner, 25 police reports have been filed on campus and during school hours at Inman since 2007. Twelve of these have been assaults, three which involved a “dangerous weapon.” Other incidents include disturbing the peace, drug possession, and larceny. The question remains: are there more incidents that have not been reported?
beth Grella • Apr 15, 2014 at 7:25 pm
So no child has been beaten to near death, been shot or tasered this year (I assume)? Congratulations on those laudable achievements! Many thanks to the LSC and the reform they have ‘pushed’. Surely the Southerner has been remiss in neglecting that headline.
Tim Langan • Apr 7, 2014 at 4:47 pm
The public is encouraged to attend any Inman Local School Council meeting, including anyone who would like more information on Safety / Discipline at the school. The parent volunteers on the council make sure it is discussed and tracked at every meeting. Our minutes are also posted online after every meeting.
I was in no way to trying to discourage the student reporter from covering this topic. The Inman LSC has ensured more public reporting on discipline for much of the last two school years, so our intention has been to spotlight the issue. I believe the topic should be reported in a fully informed way that includes facts about the current school year. The LSC has pushed reform that has been successful after the school had more issues last year. To not report on any of that seems like an incomplete story.
beth Grella • Mar 19, 2014 at 10:11 am
I agree with the comments of Sherri Caldwell and Laurie Mullig. And I applaud the journalist efforts of the Mary Claire Morris.
Clearly it’s hard for some adults who send their kids to Inman and Grady to hear such shocking news regarding the potential level of violence at our beloved public schools. However it’s up to the adults in our community to research further and press the administration for transparency on these issues.
However I am heartened to know that our kids press forward and take the time to draw our attention to these issues. Hopefully the adults and the leadership in our community will respond with the same thoughtful and serious inquiry this topic deserves.
Sherri Caldwell • Mar 19, 2014 at 9:46 am
This young journalist has done an extraordinary, and very brave, job with this piece of reporting and is to be commended for asking difficult questions and exposing this incident. She is reporting facts, drawn from interviews and a very damaging public record of the incident and it’s aftermath/cover-up. This is absolutely something we, as a community, should know and care about, despite attempts to sweep it under the rug for the sake of Inman’s/APS image.
Well done, Mary Claire. As an author and freelance journalist, and a Grady/APS parent for many years (13 down, 4 more to go, with 3 kids), I do not know or have any connection to Mary Claire, but I do want to support her brave efforts and second the commenter above– when you get a strong reaction like that above, on a good, solid piece of reporting, you know you have done a good job. You have raised an important issue, and touched a nerve, which will hopefully engender further discussion and awareness. That is your job. Never let criticism or negative response get you down.
Laurie Mullig • Mar 18, 2014 at 11:59 am
Congratulations to Mary Claire Morris, and to The Southerner. You know you’ve done some real watchdog reporting as a high school journalist when adults make time to criticize what you’ve written.
Many of us appreciate your willingness to broach the topic of safety and violence in our public schools. Unlike the TV news stations and the AJC, which have reported on the Del Bagno lawsuit, the Inman students’ bus fight ending in tasering, the accidental firearm injury inside Grady last year, and other events as isolated incidents, you’ve begun to look at some of the other publicly available evidence – police reports of assaults and weapons at both Inman and Grady – that go beyond the individual incidents. Not too bad for a full-time student, I’d say!
Of course, there’s always more reporting that could be done for any newspaper article. I hope you and your colleagues at The Southerner will continue to look into these issues, which are some of the most important to families with kids in, or potentially rising to, these schools. Comments from the schools’ LSC reps and other parents might prove illuminating, but all would need to bear in mind that parents presumably are not privy to confidential information related to violence and discipline.
Unlike the other commentators, I wouldn’t assume that more extensive investigation and reporting would necessarily shift the balance in favor of calming any fears that your first articles may cause. As Tim Langan points out, the 25 police reports presumably arose out of the most serious incidents at Inman; police reports would not be filed for the more commonplace fights, incidents of physical or emotional bullying, and other discipline problems not rising to the level of crime. And the last sentence of this article, as well as the Del Bagno lawsuit itself, are sober reminders that even the official data is only as reliable as those reporting it.
The community needs the press, including members of The Southerner staff, to help gather and disseminate relevant information here. Mr. Langan refers to a meeting at Inman in April, 2013, as already outlining the school’s problems with violence and bullying in a transparent way. It is true that the administration did acknowledge that there had been more incidents of “fighting” and “bus incidents” during the 2012-2013 year than during the previous year, but it also stated that “bullying incidents” had actually decreased in 2012-2013, and I myself left the meeting wondering which of these opaque categories physical attacks were being put in. At that meeting, no APS employee mentioned the Del Bagno injuries, or other incidents of assaults or bullying; and it fell to a parent to inform other parents in attendance that a BB gun had been brought to class.
Why aren’t school administrations more forthcoming about such important issues? Sometimes, they may feel they have little choice; current stringent privacy laws can prevent schools from communicating even the most crucial information, such as whether a student who has repeatedly engaged in violence is still at a school. (You note that APS, like many other parties to lawsuits, has chosen not to comment on the Del Bagno suit. Although there is no general law preventing litigants from commenting on pending litigation, APS and its employees may be constrained in some respects by these same privacy laws.)
Whatever the reason for the schools’ reticence to discuss school violence, though, the bottom line is this: schools often do not inform parents of information that parents need and want, both to make decisions about their own children and to push for policy reforms that may protect all children. The Southerner and its reporters can help to meet this need. Thank you for taking some strong first steps in this direction.
Unknown • Mar 17, 2014 at 7:28 pm
The simple fact remains.
The student is going to have psychological issues stemming from the incident based on the number of times the parents have found it necessary to post and repost the incident on every form of social media they could find.
This is in no way condoning the incident that occurred.
Let the courts handle it, not every blog and outlet online.
Tim Langan • Mar 6, 2014 at 1:52 pm
I’m not posting about the merits of the suit or incident described, which may be just as the parents/attorneys have detailed. I don’t know. It is going to trial now, so I understand why it is newsworthy again. I also get why teachers and administrators could not comment.
However, other than citing police reports, no reporting about safety and discipline at Inman was done for this article. Police reports aren’t warranted for the majority of issues at a middle school. Charges are rarely given to 11-14 year olds that get into a fight on any school campus, but this isn’t explained (a violent attack is something different I understand).
It would seem important in light of the charges levied against the school and it’s environment to find out what Inman is like today.
After the Fall 2012 rezoning, there were more discipline issues and fights. A major public meeting held by the principal 11 months ago that outlined those in a transparent way, as well as remediation steps being taken. The APD officer at that meeting debunked the gang rumor.
This school year has been significantly different and there are lots of programs and processes in place that have made Inman feel more like traditional Inman culture. Discipline issues are way down. Repeated trouble makers are no longer at Inman. It’s a city school so nothing is perfect, but it’s a high scoring school that feels safe to my two children and me.
A reporter showing up at a single Local School Council meeting would have been enough to learn about safety/discipline at the school, because it is a topic at every single meeting.
I’m a fan of the Southerner, but wish more reporting had been done for this article.
Debbie Mobley • Mar 1, 2014 at 1:29 pm
Love The Southerner, but this story is VERY one sided. I understand that school officials could not speak due to the pending lawsuit, but I feel you don’t have the whole story and have besmirched the reputations of Inman educators and coaches based on information from one source.