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The family of an 11-year-old girl who died by suicide filed a lawsuit against the Jennings County School Corp. last week, alleging school officials failed to take meaningful action to stop repeated reports of bullying, sexual harassment and threats leading up to their daughter’s death.
CohenMalad LLP filed the suit on behalf of Brooklyn Cook’s family in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, accusing the school corporation, several North Vernon Elementary School, or NVES, staff and current and former administrators of negligence and wrongful death. The family claims Cook, an NVES student, experienced repeated acts of bullying and sexual harassment by other students prior to her death last February.
“They did nothing,” Gregory Laker, an attorney representing the Cook family, told The Indiana Lawyer. “We simply have to take complaints of bullying seriously, because if we don’t, things like this will happen.”
The family’s claims include negligence, wrongful death and Title IX violations.
Jennings County School Corporation Superintendent Nicole Johnson said in a statement to The Lawyer on Monday that the school corporation is aware of the lawsuit and denies the allegations. The school principal and guidance counselor, both of whom the family allege were aware of the bullying, did not immediately respond to The Lawyer’s requests for comment.
On Feb. 17, 2025, Benjamin Cook, Brooklyn’s father and a plaintiff in the case, found the girl dead in her bedroom.
According to the complaint, prior to her death and over two consecutive school years, Cook, her friends and school staff reported numerous incidents of bullying, sexual harassment and sexual touching by male classmates to NVES teachers and counselors and Jennings County school administrators.
During the 2023-24 school year, when Cook was in the fourth grade, the lawsuit states the school disciplined two male classmates for “regular severe bullying and harassment” of Cook. They were removed from her classroom, and the bullying ceased.
But the next school year, when Cook was in the fifth grade, the same male students were in Cook’s class again. The lawsuit states the boys, along with other male students, resumed and “escalated” the bullying.
The boys allegedly called Cook derogatory names and ridiculed her in front of others. The lawsuit also states they told Cook to kill herself.
One of Cook’s friends who heard the boys tell Cook to kill herself reported the incident to an NVES guidance counselor and teacher, according to the lawsuit, but the bullying and harassment continued and occurred “nearly every day.”
On one occasion, another of Cook’s friends showed the guidance counselor an explicit text message exchange in which a male student told Cook to kill herself. Cook responded that she would actually kill herself.
The guidance counselor told Cook’s friend that she would report the incident to the principal, according to the complaint. The male student who sent the message was allegedly never disciplined.
“As a result of the bullying, harassment and sexual abuse described herein, Brooklyn exhibited clear and escalating signs of emotional distress, anxiety, and psychological harm while at school including threats of suicide, lethargy, emotional withdrawal and lack of motivation,” the complaint stated.
Cook’s parents now request a jury trial.
The case is Benjamin Cook and Sarah Cook on behalf of Brooklyn Cook, a deceased minor v. Jennings County School Corporation, et al. (1:26-cv-00315)
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