The parents of a boy who died by suicide will turn to a state appeals court to reinstate their legal action against Chicago's prestigious Latin School, which they say should pay for allegedly not doing enough to end the extensive bullying they say led to their son's death.
On Nov. 14, Robert and Rose Bronstein filed a notice in Cook County Circuit Court of their intent to appeal the decision from Cook County Judge Scott D. McKenna dismissing the Latin School of Chicago from their lawsuit.
While the lawsuit is continuing against some current and former Latin School employees individually, the Bronsteins say the judge was wrong to let the school off the hook in the case, by declaring the school had no responsibility under both the circumstances of the case and under state law to act to prevent their son's suicide.
The Bronsteins filed suit against Latin School and a collection of current and former Latin School administrators and counselors, among others, following the death of their son, Nate, in January 2022.
In the lawsuit, they accused the school and individual defendants of not intervening to counteract extensive cyberbullying, conducted by social media and text messages, carried out against Nate by classmates at the Latin School.
Further, the Bronsteins asserted the school and its employees knew about the bullying and about their son's alleged suicidal ideations, and yet allegedly chose to do nothing to stop the suicide from happening.
The Latin School of Chicago is a selective private school located in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood.
The school boasts many prominent alumni, led by former U.S. First Lady Nancy Reagan.
The school continues to be heavily populated by children from some of Chicago's most prominent families, including recently by the children of Illinois' two most recent governors, billionaire Democrat JB Pritzker and millionaire Republican Bruce Rauner.
And the school's board of trustees is filled with leaders and top executives from Chicago's spheres of industry, education, finance, nonprofits and government, among others.
According to court documents, Nate Bronstein began attending the Latin School in the fall of 2021, transferring in from another private college prep school, Francis W. Parker School.
Though he was only enrolled at Latin School for a few months of the 2021-2022 school year, Nate allegedly "experienced psychological and emotional injury due to intense cyberbullying from his peers" at the school.
According to court documents, the bullying and resulting injury was severe enough to lead the Bronsteins to agree to pull Nate out of the Latin School and reenroll Nate at Francis W. Parker School following winter break in 2022.
However, before winter break ended, Nate committed suicide on Jan. 13, 2022.
According to court documents, "at the time of his death, Nate was actively receiving therapy and counseling from third parties for his mental health prior to and after the alleged cyberbullying."
In response to the lawsuit, the Latin School has extended condolences to the Bronstein family, saying they were "heartbroken" by Nate's death. But they have consistently maintained the Bronsteins' "legal claims are without merit."
The school has particularly asserted it was never alerted by the family with concerns over Nate's treatment at the school.
The Bronsteins, however, have said the school knew of Nate's mistreatment, but did not sufficiently intervene or fully inform Nate's family of the extent of Nate's psychological and emotional injuries. They said they learned of the bullying too late.
The school, however, has further argued the law imposes no obligation on schools to prevent a student's suicide, which they argued "is not legally foreseeable."
After more than two years in court and numerous revisions to the legal complaint, among other filings and subpoenas, Judge McKenna in May dismissed Latin School and some of its top current and former administrators from the Bronsteins' lawsuit.
In his ruling, McKenna agreed with Latin School that nothing in the law or prior appellate or state Supreme Court rulings impose a legal duty on schools to prevent student suicides.
He said this is the case even under Illinois' anti-bullying law, which requires schools to create anti-bullying policies.
McKenna said allowing the Bronsteins to continue with their action would impose a dangerous precedent which could open the door to legal actions against schools requiring them to take responsibility for the actions of students outside of school hours or outside the supervision of teachers, administrators, coaches and other school personnel.
"Imposing a duty on a school or its administrators/employees to somehow prevent - or seek to control - the actions of its students while off-campus (and, significantly, while the student is no longer even a student at the school), is a line too far that this Court cannot endorse as a matter of public policy," McKenna wrote. "This is consistent with the policy arguments advocated by our appellate and Supreme Courts ... and acknowledges the incredible slippery slope that would be created by imposing a duty to prevent an act that by its very nature is irrational.
"The magnitude of imposing that burden to prevent suicide on institutions and people who have no physical control over the person suffering, and have had extremely remote (if any) contact with that person for an extended period of time prior to the irrational act itself, would indeed be overwhelmingly high on our schools and those who work for them. This is not the law in Illinois, and this Court will not impose that duty/burden where one does not otherwise exist."
The judge applied similar reasoning in rejecting assertions that the school should bear responsibility as the "legal cause" of the boy's wrongful death.
"... Any suicide, particularly one committed by a young person with what are clearly caring and attentive parents and siblings, is the type of act that is irrational by definition," McKenna wrote. "This act could not have been the foreseeable result of any of the Defendants' actions as alleged in this case...
"... Holding otherwise would impose an unreasonable and impossibly onerous causation standard that the state of the law in Illinois does not recognize or endorse."
The Bronsteins asked the judge to reconsider his ruling. McKenna, however, refused, saying he believed his decision was based on sound law and precedent.
In October, the judge granted the Bronsteins permission to appeal the rulings, even though the case remained pending and had not become "final."
The Bronsteins then notified the court in mid-November that they indeed would appeal McKenna's decisions to the First District Appellate Court in Chicago.
The Bronsteins are represented in the case by attorneys Danielle J. Gould, Jayne Bart-Plange and Alexander D. Marks, of the firm of Burke Warren MacKay & Serritella P.C., of Chicago.
Latin School is represented by attorneys Michael T. Trucco, Brian E. Martin and Jackie Condella, of the firm of Stamos & Trucco LLP, of Chicago.