Blue Springs schools agreed to six-figure settlement with parent after teen's suicide

The Blue Springs School District agreed this month to a six-figure settlement with the parent of a teen who took his own life.

The district agreed to pay the parent $185,000, according to Tom Rodenberg, the director of legal services for the district, after a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the parent last summer alleged the district's "culture" of bullying contributed to her son's and his friend's suicides.

Ryker Lewis was one of the teens who took his life. Ryker's mother, Rebecca Lewis, filed the lawsuit in Jackson County Circuit Court.

The lawsuit named district Superintendent Jim Finley and former Superintendent Paul Kinder, as well as several middle and high school principals, assistant principals, teachers and school counselors.

The settlement amount was first reported by The Examiner.

The lawsuit said that Ryker, who was 15 at the time of his May 2014 death, took his own life eight months after his “best friend,” Ethan Young, died by suicide.

Bullying complaints had been generally made to school leaders, the suit alleged, but the complaints were “ignored and often met with those who were bullied being subjected to punishment or further bullying.”

The lawsuit alleged bullying occurred at Moreland Ridge Middle School and the Blue Springs Freshman Center, which "had a reputation that it was somewhere they could expect to be bullied because it was just the way it was there."

Also named in the lawsuit were John Doe 1, 2 and 3, and Jane Doe 1, 2 and 3, who are the parents of students who, while in the school cafeteria, allegedly told Ryker to “go kill himself,” the lawsuit said.

This story was originally published March 30, 2018 at 11:20 PM with the headline "Blue Springs schools agreed to six-figure settlement with parent after teen's suicide."