Darrin Loving's mother is suing Manor Independent School District, alleging that school officials failed to protect her son despite repeated warnings about bullying and his safety, nearly two years after the 18-year-old was fatally stabbed inside a Manor Senior High School restroom. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, names Manor ISD, the Texas Education Agency and Texas Education Commissioner Mike Morath as defendants.
According to Yahoo News, the suit was filed by Mary Etta Sephus individually and on behalf of Loving's estate and heirs. Loving died after being stabbed at Manor Senior High on October 29, 2024, and investigators said another student attacked him inside a school restroom. Authorities charged that student, Mac Brown Mbah Mbanwei, with murder, and he was later found incompetent to stand trial.
The complaint alleges Loving had cognitive and physical disabilities, significant difficulty communicating, and a need for close supervision, particularly when using the bathroom, the same outlet reported. Sephus says she repeatedly told teachers and administrators that her son was being bullied and needed additional help and supervision, raising specific concerns about him being left alone in the bathroom.
Family Says Repeated Warnings Went Unheeded
The lawsuit alleges Manor ISD failed to provide adequate accommodations for Loving, address disability-related bullying, and respond to repeated concerns about Mbanwei's behavior before the stabbing. Attorneys for the family argue the district lacked sufficient resources to provide adequate campus security, and they claim Texas' school funding system contributed to the security shortcomings, according to KXAN Austin. The family is seeking monetary damages and is asking the court to order changes meant to better protect students, particularly those with disabilities.
The complaint also alleges that budget constraints contributed to staffing cuts and delayed security improvements at the district, per the report from Yahoo News. It further claims Manor ISD sent nearly $2 million to the state for the 2024-25 school year even as the district faced financial difficulties.
District Points to Safety Upgrades, Says It Hasn't Seen the Suit
As of 3 p.m. the day the lawsuit was reported, Manor ISD said it had not yet received the complaint. The district said its ongoing safety work includes weapons detection systems at its secondary campuses and at least one officer assigned to every campus, the same report noted.
Those measures follow changes the district made in the weeks after Loving's death. As reported by CBS Austin, Manor ISD limited entry points to its campuses and began screening students with metal-detecting wands, and it held a safety meeting on November 13, 2024, to walk families through the protocol changes and gather feedback.
A Statewide Funding Fight Over Armed Campus Officers
The lawsuit's funding allegations land against the backdrop of a broader statewide debate. Texas passed a law in 2023 requiring public school districts to station an armed officer at every campus, and districts have repeatedly pressed the state for more money to comply, according to the Texas Tribune. A Senate Education Committee report from January found that more than half of Texas school districts still did not meet that one-officer-per-campus requirement.
House Bill 3 raised the state's annual school safety allotment to $10 per student and $15,000 per campus, and it gave the Texas Education Agency a one-time $1.1 billion pool to distribute for safety upgrades, the Tribune reported. School officials have said an armed guard costs at least $60,000 to $70,000 a year to employ, well above the roughly $21,000 a typical 600-student elementary school receives under the state allotment. Lawmakers have since proposed increasing school safety funding by $400 million over the 2026-2027 budget period, per the same report.
Under Texas law, discipline for bullying a student with disabilities must comply with applicable federal requirements, including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, according to the Texas Constitution and Statutes. Separately, the Texas Education Agency has said it coordinated with the Texas School Safety Center to issue required school-safety action steps for public school systems statewide, per the agency's own guidance.
KXAN Austin reported it had reached out for comment to Manor ISD, the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Attorney General's Office, and said it was scheduled to speak with the family's attorney. The outlet said it plans to update its reporting as responses come in.
