Schools

Family Sues Morris School District 2 Years After Son Committed Suicide

School district, officials, and three teens who had harassed Lennon Baldwin all part of lawsuit made public Thursday.

Sharon Vernelas has officially filed a lawsuit against the Morris School District, six school officials, and three teens two years after her son, Lennon Vernelas Baldwin, committed suicide at age 15 in their Morris Township home.

The suit was made public Thursday in Superior Court in Morristown, according to dailyrecord.com. The suit doesn’t come as a surprise, as Varnelas alerted the district of what was to come shortly after the teen’s death on March 28, 2012, the report said.

The lawsuit claims district officials failed to “enact, follow or enforce an effective harassment, intimidation and bullying policy,” prior to Baldwin’s death. The three students who were charged with different offenses related to the suicide are named in the suit – Marcus James, J-Money Wright-Baxter, and Michael Conway – and they had a propensity for violence known to the district.

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Current schools superintendent Dr. Thomas Ficarra and former Morristown High School principal Linda Murphy are two of the officials named in the suit, the report said.

Vernelas and Lennon Baldwin’s father, John Baldwin, are seeking compensatory and punitive damages for the family’s monetary losses along with the severe mental and emotional distress they have suffered, the report said. 

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