BLYTHEWOOD – Blythewood Middle School faculty routinely disregarded a former student’s bullying complaints, retaliating against him for reporting the continued harassment, according to a recently filed lawsuit.
The abuse grew so severe, the student identified in court papers as “D.G.,” threatened to harm himself, the suit says.
“By selectively punishing D.G. for minor or nonexistent misconduct, but allowing other students to bully, intimidate and humiliate D.G. without any disciplinary consequences from the District for the misconduct, District created a dangerous environment for D.G. and other students who could be bullied without being able to take meaningful steps to protect themselves,” the suit states.
Stephen and Tammie Gilchrest, the student’s parents, filed suit April 30 in Richland County Circuit Court. The litigation names Richland County School District Two as the defendant.
A Richland Two spokeswoman declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.
The suit seeks actual, consequential and punitive damages, as well as reasonable attorney fees and other costs and expenses.
The lawsuit filed last week doesn’t directly blame his son’s bullying or the district’s response on his participation in public policy matters, though it noted both parents are “often at odds” politically with the district and school in matters outside the scope of their son’s education.
According to the suit, the harassment began in the 2022-2023 school year, shortly after D.G. was disallowed from studying saxophone for failing to score at least 97% on a music theory test.
His teacher offered to waive the requirement if his parents enrolled him in private music lessons. The Gilchrists objected, citing affordability and raised concerns to the teacher.
After the Gilchrists spoke up, the school targeted and retaliated against their son, according to the suit.
Blythewood Middle altered the student’s schedule, selectively punished their son for minor infractions while tolerating similar conduct of other students, confined him once in a storage room to “calm down,” and on another occasion paraded him in front of students, subjecting him to student ridicule, the suit states.
Bullying quickly followed
In September 2022, the student reported he had been bullied in math class. Students responded by labeling the student a “snitch” while the bullying intensified and faculty admonished the student for not reporting the bullying “more quickly,” according to the suit.
As the time progressed, bullying intensified in terms of severity and frequency. Meantime, the student was often assigned detention or given in-school suspension when he was the victim of bullying, according to the suit.
In December 2022, following continued bullying complaints, former Richland Two board chair Monica Elkins-Scott issued a board statement that read as follows: “We will take innovative, effective and proactive measures to improve school safety immediately.”
However, bullying persisted throughout the school year and into the following school year, as did indifference by Blythewood Middle faculty.
In October 2024, video surveillance captured another student punching D.G. in the face, but BMS administration refused to punish the other student, calling the punch “no big deal,” the suit said. The school eventually enacted “limited punishment” of the student after the Gilchrists filed a criminal complaint.
The Gilchrists ultimately unenrolled their son from BMS when the school failed to adequately address a cyber bullying incident in which a student photographed their son in the bathroom and posted it to social media, according to the suit.
School staff told the Gilchrists they wouldn’t act unless the Gilchrists first filed a Title IX complaint, citing “rules put into place by President Trump,” the suit continues.
“The absence of any disciplinary response from the District to incidents such as the October 2023 battery and unauthorized dissemination of the humiliating bathroom photo involving D.G. was deliberate and intentional misconduct that shocks the conscience and is intolerable in any public school,” the suit states.
The Gilchrists are seeking actual, consequential, and punitive damages, as well as legal costs.
No trial date has been set. A deadline of November 26 has been set to complete mediation.
