Federal authorities have launched an investigation into complaints that a South Jersey school district violated the civil rights of students, including an 11-year-old girl who killed herself after her family said she was relentlessly bullied by classmates .

The complaints accuse the Mount Holly School System in Burlington County of discrimination against students based on race, national origin, sexual orientation and gender, Philip R. Sellinger, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, wrote in a letter to the district last month. It did not say how many complaints had been received.

Sellinger said the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s Civil Rights Division is looking into how the Mount Holly district handled allegations of harassment by students toward their peers and whether federal laws protecting students from discrimination were violated. Such investigations are not uncommon, but are rarely disclosed publicly while the case is pending.

The investigation came to light after district attorneys recently tried to delay proceedings in a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by his family Felicia LoAlbo-Melendez, who died in 2023,. claiming the sixth grader sought protection from her classmates at FW Holbein Schoolbut school officials did nothing about it.

In a motion filed this month in Superior Court, Jeffrey P. Catalano, an attorney representing the school district, cited the federal investigation in seeking to delay the civil case. A copy of the letter from Sellinger was attached as an exhibit. A spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

In his motion, Catalano asked for a 90-day delay in the wrongful-death trial, arguing that it would be a challenge to handle both cases simultaneously. He said the district “wholeheartedly denies” the federal investigation it will lend any truth to the allegations cited by Sellinger in his letter. Catalano did not respond to messages Tuesday seeking comment.

“We haven’t come to any conclusions”

According to the letter from Sellinger and Junis L. Baldon, an assistant US attorney in the Civil Rights Division, investigators cast a wide net of information, records and documents beyond the allegations in the LoAlbo-Melendez case. Federal authorities may visit the district to interview students and staff, they said.

The letter seeks disaggregated data on all alleged victims and any person accused of assault. It also requested policies and procedures regarding harassment, bullying and intimidation of students at Holbein, as well as the district’s two other elementary schools, John Brainerd and Gertrude Folwell. It also asked for a list of employees responsible for enforcing the policies.

“The information and documents will help us objectively evaluate these allegations and determine what actions, if any, may be warranted,” the letter said. “Our investigation into the allegations is preliminary in nature and we have not reached any conclusion as to whether any violation of federal law occurred.”

Mount Holly Schools Superintendent Robert Mungo did not respond to phone and email messages seeking comment. The wrongful-death lawsuit names Mungo, the principal, counselors and teachers, accusing them of failing to protect the girl.

Diane Sammons, an attorney with Nagel Rice in Roseland who brought the suit on behalf of LoAlbo-Melendezhis mother, said she has been contacted by parents of other students in the district who have been supportive their child was assaulted. The federal probe supports her case that the district is in trouble, she said.

“It’s so obvious that it’s a district-wide problem,” Sammons said Tuesday. “He’s bigger than Felicia.”

‘What are the problems that allowed this to happen?’

The 11-year-old was found unresponsive on February 6, 2023, at the school on Levis Drive. Two days later, he “succumbed to his injuries while cradled in his mother’s arms,” ​​the lawsuit says. A medical examiner ruled her death a suicide.

Described as a compassionate and bright student who skipped a grade, the girl was very active in extracurricular activities at school, according to the lawsuit. As a member of the Random Acts of Kindness Club, she was an advocate for anti-bullying.

It suffered “a prolonged and persistent period of harassment that occurred during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years,” according to the lawsuit. She was harassed and harassed about her physical appearance, Latino roots and “perceived sexual orientation,” the lawsuit states.

In the weeks before her death, the child was taunted by students to “don’t live for yourself,” the lawsuit says. In class, she was called ugly and was the target of ethnic slurs and other offensive names, the lawsuit says.

She wrote letters and emails to school officials and proposed starting a “trauma club” for herself and other students who were being bullied. School officials promised to rearrange the girl’s class schedule to minimize contact with the alleged bullies, but failed to do so, the lawsuit states.

” READ MORE: Her 11-year-old daughter committed suicide. Now this South Jersey mom is fighting to toughen anti-bullying laws in schools.

Sammons, who is seeking punitive damages for the family, believes incidents of assault are underreported at Holbein and not properly investigated. She wants better enforcement of New Jersey’s anti-bullying laws, already among the toughest in the country.

“What are the issues that allowed this to happen?” she asked.