State Files Complaint Against District Alleging Sexual Discrimination of Gay Student

The school district has been served a complaint filed by the New Jersey Office of Civil Rights for allegedly discriminating against a student because he was gay.

The office, a division of the Attorney General's Office, with the state Department of Law and Public Safety on Jan. 5. Ridgewood Public School District is accused in the complaint of unlawfully discriminating against Zimmer's 15-year-old son Matthew, creating a hostile, bullying environment which forced him to withdraw from classes.

The state will be investigating the claims the Zimmer family filed against the district in early 2010, which the district internally investigated and found to be unfounded in its own July 2010 report. The Zimmers had the chance to appeal the decision to the Ridgewood Board of Education but did not do so due to a "miscommunication," David Zimmer previously said.

The specific allegations range from Sept. 2009 to March 2010. The Zimmer family says Matthew was outed as gay by his health teacher, was subject to an incident in which students posted sexually-demeaning notes on his back (one calling him "a fat f*g), and was allegedly sent a sexually-explicit Facebook message from a student which contained a link to pornography.

The final allegation in the complaint, which occurred in the midst of the community , chronicles an incident in which Matthew observed a message on the school cafeteria wall that stated, "gay must die". The wall was painted over but the district took no corrective steps in addressing students or investigating the incident properly, the complaint states.

The collective allegations led the Zimmer family to withdrawing Matthew from classes (along with a medical condition for which they claim he was not accommodated) and . The law, which passed nearly unanimously, forces teachers and administrators to create mandatory anti-bullying procedures and teams. The bill also specifies that harm to students can be emotional as well as physical while declaring that "harassment, intimidation or bullying" could include incidents that foster a "hostile environment" at school.

The complaint states that the district should have known about what is alleged to be a "hostile environment" and "taken prompt, effective remedial action." The complaint notes that Matthew is affordable protected class status because of his perceived sexual orientation.

The district investigated the allegations originally charged by the Zimmers and found them "baseless" and concluded that the district took proper action when incidents were brought to its attention. In its report filed in July–which, like the complaint, Patch obtained from David Zimmer–the district questioned the integrity of Matthew Zimmer, saying his statements were lies. Twenty-eight individuals were interviewed for the report (21 of which were students and staff), and other students at the time of allegations in the report said they saw no wrongdoing.

Schools Superintendent Dr. Daniel Fishbein has said that the investigation was "complete" and "thorough" and proper procedure was followed. In turn, David Zimmer said that the review "was specious at best," and remarked that some incidents were not addressed in the district's report, such as an omission of the incident in which students were said to have pasted cruel notes on Matthew's back.

"The OCR is best positioned to see that a complete investigation is handled," he said. "It is time for Ridgewood to face facts and discontinue its practice of sweeping issues of this nature under the rug."

The Office of Civil Rights did not respond to requests for comment on the case, but David Zimmer said in an e-mail that while the complaint affords the Zimmers a right to punitive damages should the district be found to have discriminated, it's "premature" to look at financial awards at this juncture.

Fishbein confirmed that the district has received the complaint but offered no further comment.