The mother of a Chicago teenager who was bullied at his private school and committed suicide as a result of claims that he was unvaccinated has demanded that the academy’s former principal be dismissed from his new $1 million job in New York.
After months of unrelenting bullying, Rosellen Bronstein, 48, filed a $100 million lawsuit against the Latin School of Chicago and its former principal, Randall Dunn, 57, alleging that the administration ignored her son, Nate’s, appeal for help.
Bronstein demanded Dunn’s dismissal after learning that he was going to become the head of the prominent Rye Country Day School in Westchester, New York, in July.
‘Dunn does not care about students,’ Bronstein told the New York Post. ‘He cares about himself and his career. He’s a fraud. He is dishonest.’
According to court filings, Nate, 15, hanged himself in January after months of bullying, which his parents claimed was sparked in part by a false allegation that he was unvaccinated.
The lawsuit goes on to detail occurrences that sprang from the rumors, such as when Nate was approached at school on two separate occasions by children who both asked him if his parents were “anti-vaxxers.”
Nate’s parents contacted the school to try to fix the situation, but it just made things worse when the 15-year-old boy was harassed again.
Bronstein said she was afraid that what happened to Nate would also happen to students at the Rye Country School if Dunn was left in charge.
‘I am warning all the parents of [Rye Country School], this is going to happen again,’ Bronstein told the Post. ‘Their kids are not going to be protected in that school under Dunn.’
The Latin School of Chicago has denied the Bronstein’s claims and said that they, too, were saddened by Nate’s suicide.
‘The school’s faculty and staff are compassionate people who put students’ interests first, as they did in this instance,’ the school said in a statement after the lawsuit was initially filed in April.
‘While we are not, at this time, going to comment on any specific allegation in this difficult matter, the school will vigorously defend itself, its faculty and its staff against these unfounded claims.’
The school’s administration could not be immediately reached for comment.
Bronstein told the Post that she truly believes her son would still be alive today if a different person had been in charge, claiming that Dunn and his administration was more preoccupied with enforcing ‘woke’ policies than helping her white son.
‘They spent more time yelling at my son about keeping his nose covered with that f**king mask than teaching the kids to be inclusive and kind and thoughtful and caring,’ she said.
‘They are very focused on their [Diversity, Equity and Inclusion] stuff and all their progressive bulls—t,’ she added.
‘I can assure you that if my son was black and this happened, this would have been handled a lot differently. But my son was a white Jewish kid.’
The Bronstein lawsuit also includes text threats and snapchat messages exchanged between Nate and classmates, one of which pushes Nate to kill himself and the other of which is seen as an indirect death threat.
Nate met with the dean of students on December 13, 2021, to report the bullying, but the dean took no disciplinary action against any of the pupils. According to the lawsuit, Nate’s report was also hidden from his parents.
Nate Bronstein had requested a meeting with his dean of students to report the harassment, according to the Bronsteins.
‘It had been kept from us, so that’s why we were completely, completely taken off guard when this happened,’ said Robert Bronstein.
Every school in Illinois, including private schools, is required by law to adopt an anti-bullying policy, according to the Illinois General Assembly Public Act.
That policy must include details on how bullying should be reported and investigated, as well as how occurrences of bullying should be communicated to the parents of individuals affected.
Latin is not being sued for the money, according to the family. Instead, they’ve pledged to give any proceeds from the legal proceedings to anti-bullying and anti-suicide organizations, with the purpose of assisting others in similar situations.