Nowadays, it seems that everyone is suing everyone else. The saying, “Where there’s blame, there’s a claim,” is widespread and a lot of people seem to be jumping on that bandwagon. When I wrote “He Was Weird,” the idea gave me inspiration for part of the story as well as concern. In the story, after Mark shoots up the school after years of being bullied, the people in the city of Ramsgate, New Jersey allow themselves to be horn swaddled by lawyers. Parents of the victims begin suing the school, the police and parents of some of the children who bullied Mark. A main target was Mark’s mother’s boyfriend Ted, who inadvertently gave Mark his access to guns for the big day. So, the lawsuits came thick and fast but did it solve anything?
I don’t answer the last question in the book as it wasn’t relevant to the story but I did get the idea from Columbine and other school shootings. After Columbine, parents sued the school, the sheriff and the parents of the two shooters. In the Paducah, Kentucky shooting, victims’ parents sued the homeowner the guns were stolen from and even tried to sue anarchist websites. Yes, today one can use their grief to cash in. Admittedly, if one of my children was shot, I would try to seek some sort of compensation but I wouldn’t want to go nuts and sue the world. Then again, it’s the lawyers who really cash in on things like this.
While writing about lawsuits in the story gave it another talking point to ponder, in the real world, it gave me a little bit of concern. Originally, I wanted to actually use the name of the town I was so badly bullied in but after advice from an attorney, I changed the name because the town would have sued me. Even though, I changed the name of the town and obviously, the names of people some of the characters were based on, I was still a little worried that someone in that town would have worked it out and tried to sue me. It wasn’t only me either, when Cherie White wrote her book, “From Victim to Victor,” she was threatened with lawsuits from former bullies who worked out she was talking about them.
Back when I was going through the bullying hell and basically throughout my childhood, suing everyone over everything wasn’t heard of. Reflecting back, there were instances during that time that if they had happened today, I could have sued. So, I will dedicate the rest of the post talking about those.
In first grade, I had a teacher who wasn’t afraid of dishing out corporal punishment. I remember this teacher grabbing my arm, pulling my hair and slapping me. My mother did try to address this with the principal but he sided with the teacher. I definitely could have sued there.
Like in “He Was Weird,” my fifth grade teacher had my desk in a cardboard box. She conned my mother into believing it would help me learn, although I know now that it was BS. She just couldn’t handle my autistic traits and simply didn’t want to see me.
During my teenage years, my hair was an unruly mess. When I was fourteen, the hairdresser made all sorts of patronizing comments about my hair. When he asked me how often do I wash it, I said “Every Saturday.” He responded, “You wash your car on Saturdays but wash your hair every three to four days.” When he finished, his parting comment was, “See you next Easter.” (I had my hair cut just before Christmas.) These days, I could have sued the salon over ‘hurt feelings.’
While this seems far fetched, I think that these days I could have sued. My local TV paper had a film listed which I was excited to see. However, the paper got it wrong and the film wasn’t shown. Today, I could have possibly sued the paper over the error as it resulted in great disappointment.
Living here in Great Britain, Americans are often stereotyped as being lawsuit happy, although it is getting that way here. That stereotype kept me from suing a school where I worked as a supply (substitute) teacher who lied to the agency about me. I did go to my union but they said they couldn’t do anything because of current laws. Even more reason why I should have sued the shcool. It might have thrust supply teachers’ rights into the forefront.
Often I wonder if I could have sued the town where I was a victim of so much bullying, even fifty years later. I won’t do it as writing “He Was Weird” did a super job of exorcising those demons. I bet many of you out there have their own stories of how you could have sued somebody. If so, please share them here.
To buy He Was Weird, go to: https://www.amazon.co.uk/He-Was-Weird-Michael-Lefevre/dp/1909740942/ref=sr_1_1?crid=36I8I1G32U0R4&keywords=he+was+weird&qid=1667898436&s=books&sprefix=he+was+%2Cstripbooks%2C148&sr=1-1
Ps. A few years back, I posted lyrics from a song titled, “I’m Getting Sued by Santa Claus.” When I start posting Christmas song lyrics, I will post those again. In fact, I’ll share the entire song.