Published Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012 | 1:55 p.m.
Updated Friday, Aug. 17, 2012 | 11 p.m.
A lawsuit filed this week alleges several former Las Vegas middle school students — including the teen daughter of a Metro Police captain — bullied and cyberbullied a Hispanic girl and vandalized her family’s home.
The lawsuit, filed in Clark County District Court, alleges the defendants tweeted and posted racially derogatory online messages about the girl, taunted her by comparing her to the “Dora the Explorer” Hispanic cartoon character and threw eggs, olive oil, frosting and chocolate syrup on the family’s lawn and driveway.
Defendants include two teen girls and two teen boys, their parents and 10 others who have not yet been named. Their names are not being published because of the age of some of the defendants.
The lawsuit seeks actual and punitive damages, including $10,000 for each derogatory comment made by each defendant. The defendants have not yet answered the complaint.
“This is a classic case of bullying motivated by race and other factors, with parents who (are) unwilling to take responsibility for their children,” the lawsuit says. “Two mean girls obsessively bully a shy, diminutive and reserved Hispanic girl and ridicule her relentlessly over a span of time and vandalize her home. The parents make excuses and shirk responsibility for their children’s actions. Meanwhile (the two girls named in the lawsuit) continue to harm the plaintiffs.”
The complaint says the two girls “repeatedly made racially derogatory comments” to the Hispanic girl, in person at school and through social media. The behavior escalated to the point where two boys joined in, “motivated by racism and hatred,” and vandalized the family’s home on June 8, “destroying property and leaving racial slurs upon the property.”
“Multiple landscaping lights were ripped out, along with numerous freshly planted flowers, all of which were strewn across the driveway. Shattered glass and olive oil was on the driveway and garage door, with toilet paper all over the trees and landscaping,” the complaint said. “This was a destructive attack centered on messages of hatred and racism.”
The lawsuit says the defendants’ parents “appear to condone the behavior, which is perpetuating further wrongful and hateful actions by their children” toward the girl.
The parents of one of the defendants issued a letter to the media saying they took their daughter to the Hispanic girl’s home to apologize and offer to clean up. The letter said they had their daughter write an apology letter, and they returned to the victim's home the next day to try to make amends.
“Regardless of what happens in the legal forum, our daughter has already paid the price for her choices,” the parents said in the letter. “She has been grounded, we have required her to do 'community service' to help others in need, and we have had many discussions to hopefully better instill in her the values we hope she will live by as she becomes a young adult.”
The lawsuit also alleges that after the vandalism, the Metro Police captain whose daughter was allegedly involved went to the family’s home to intimidate them.
The lawsuit alleges the police captain told the girl’s parents he was going to check on the police report to make sure things were “taken care of,” saying his daughter wasn’t responsible for any of the damage and blaming the other teens.
