SOMERSET -- When one student bullies another at school, is it the school's fault? Or do the bullies' families share in the blame?
How about the legal liability?
That's the issue Somerset County Superior Court Judge Yolanda Ciccone will decide in a few weeks, after hearing oral arguments Wednesday.
In March 2014, Ciccone ruled that two Hunterdon County school districts could file suit against 13 students and their parents for alleged bullying incidents. If the alleged victim wins his own lawsuit against the school districts, the parents of the alleged bullies could be forced to share culpability.
Wednesday, the families of those alleged bullies asked to be dismissed from the suit as third-party defendants. Their attorneys made their arguments before Ciccone -- who is the assignment judge for Hunterdon, Somerset and Warren counties -- in Somerset.
"Once a kid goes to school that's it, mom and dad are off the hook?" asked Robert Gold, a Morristown lawyer who represents the Hunterdon Central Regional School District. "The school is supposed to take care of them in every respect?
The alleged victim sued the districts law last year, alleging they failed to stop harassing behavior despite years of complaints. The teen did not sue the individual students -- it's the districts' own suit that seeks to hold the alleged bullies responsible.
"It's incumbent on the parents to instruct their children," Gold said. "There's no responsibility on the parents, period? It (preventing bullying) has to be a collaborative effort. It doesn't just start and end with the schools. This can send a huge message to parents and kids over age seven to act appropriately."
Attorney Cherylee Melcher, the attorney for the Flemington-Raritan district, said the parents of the alleged bullies were guilty of "neglect" and should be held "liable."
Lawyers representing the alleged bullies argued Ciccone would be setting a dangerous precedent if she didn't grant the motion to dismiss them from the suit.
Greg Boyle, a Tinton Falls-based attorney from the law firm Ronan, Tuzzio and Giannone, said it was the schools' responsibility to stop the bullying, saying that during one alleged bullying incident two gym teachers were present when the alleged victim was hit in the groin by an alleged bully with a kickball.
"Seventh-grade boys throwing kickballs happen every day," Boyle said.
Ciccone pointed out that all of the alleged bullying took place on school grounds. She said once parents in at least two incidents were notified, the bullying by their children stopped.
In the initial lawsuit against the districts, the alleged victim claimed he had been targed by classmates for years -- started at the Copper Hill School in East Amwell, and then continuing at the the Reading-Fleming Intermediate School, at J.P. Case Middle School and at Hunterdon Central Regional High School, all in Flemington. Students made fun of his weight and called him anti-gay slurs, according to the suit.
In one case, in the sixth grade, two classmates allegedly pulled down his pants to expose his underwear, and another youth threw sauce-covered pasta on him at lunch. The suit says he eventually developed anorexia.
The suit says the school failed to adequately address the bullying, despite complaints by the teen and his mother.
Dave Hutchinson may be reached at dhutchinson@njadvancemedia.com.Follow him on Twitter @DHutch_SL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.