Family awarded £20m in biggest bullying settlement ever after thugs beat son to death
Diego Stolz's family sued his school after officials failed to heed the warning signs prior to his death at the hands of sadistic tormentors.
A family in California was awarded the biggest bullying settlement on record after school staff failed to stop a 13-year-old from being beaten to death by his sick tormentors.
The Stolz family was handed £20million ($27million) after the Moreno Valley Unified School District settled over the wrongful death of Diego Stolz in 2019.
Diego and his family reported persistent bullying in the week before his death but the principal of Landmark Middle School and other members of staff failed to step in.
The 13-year-old was beaten to death by two of his bullies, who were given a probation sentence despite admitting to the murder.
The attack on the teen was recorded on CCTV camera and showed Diego banging his head on a concrete pillar after being shoved and his bullies were filmed raining blows on the boy while he was unconscious.
Diego was rushed to hospital after the brutal beating but he died days later.
The teen's legal guardians, his aunt Juana and uncle Felipe Salcedo, sued the Moreno Valley Unified School District for the wrongful death of their nephew, claiming school staff didn't do enough to protect the boy.
In a statement following the settlement, the couple's lawyer said: "The family will forever be heartbroken by the death of Diego but they hope this case brings about change in school districts across the country.
"Schools need to realize that bullying can never be tolerated and that any complaints of bullying and assault must be taken seriously. Diego's death was preventable if this school had simply prioritized an anti-bullying policy."
His two attackers, who were never identified, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in juvenile court in 2020.
But the following year, the Riverside County Superior Court judge ordered they would bypass prison time and instead would undergo anger management therapy.
The pair was in juvenile custody for 47 days before being released back to their parents.
Juana Salcedo released an impact statement during sentencing in which she vowed to "continue to fight for my son", after she said the school let Diego down.
The family's attorney, Neil Gehlaway, insisted the 13-year-old's death was "entirely preventable id administrators at his middle school had done their jobs."
He added: "On the Thursday prior to the fatal assault, which was on Monday, Diego was assaulted by one of the same bullies at the school."
Gehlaway said the family reported the attack to then-Assistant Principal Kamilah O'Connor, who said the boys would immediately be suspended for their actions.
However, Diego soon discovered that was not the case as he received a fatal blow to the head on the first day back to school after the assault.
He said the boy's family had received "the largest bullying settlement in the United States" because of the breakdown in communication between staff.
The attorney added: "One of the assistant principals had information about Diego being bullied and assaulted, and she did not share that information with her fellow administrators, the other vice principal and the principal at the school, and on the day Diego was fatally assaulted she was not at school that day."
Moreno Valley school district superintendent Martin Kedziora said Diego's death would result in serious changes to avoid further tragic accidents.
He said: "We have to be more thoughtful, more responsive, more empathetic.
"When you meet with a parent and they say, ‘I don’t want my kid to be the next Diego,’ you can say, ‘I agree,’ but our actions speak louder than our words."
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