A Bergen County family is suing the Ramsey school district, alleging their son spent years enduring bullying, threats and false accusations after classmates wrongly linked him to an anonymous TikTok account that listed students to be killed. The family says the school treated their son like the danger rather than the victim, even as he was reportedly slapped, punched and labeled a shooter by his peers.
The lawsuit, filed in Bergen County Superior Court, names the Ramsey Board of Education, the Ramsey Borough School District, more than a dozen school officials, seven students and a parent as defendants, according to Daily Voice. The family, identified only by initials, says school officials “repeatedly ignored complaints, failed to investigate incidents, and treated” their son, referred to as T.A. in court papers, “as a threat rather than a victim,” the outlet reports. A separate account from northjersey.com similarly describes the family's claim that their son was “treated like a threat when he was the one being bullied.”
According to the Daily Voice report, the ordeal traces back to January 2022, when students created an anonymous TikTok account featuring a hit list of classmates to be killed. T.A., who attended Eric S. Smith Middle School and later Ramsey High School and receives special education services, was falsely identified by classmates as the creator of the video, the lawsuit alleges. His mother alerted school administrators that her son was being falsely accused, and the school then contacted police, who took T.A. to the Ramsey police station for questioning before releasing him the same day, per the outlet's account.
Months of Home Instruction and a Shifting Label
School officials told T.A.'s parents he could not return to school, and he received home instruction until March 2023, the lawsuit states. The district classified that stretch as an out-of-school suspension, as reported by Daily Voice. During that period and afterward, the alleged harassment continued, with students reportedly calling T.A. a shooter, asking whether he had guns, and accusing him of planning to attack the school.
In October 2023, a band teacher allegedly told the class he felt threatened and taken hostage when T.A. put away scissors, while another student suggested T.A. was going to stab someone, the lawsuit claims. That same month, a student and her mother reportedly told the family's pastor that T.A. had been expelled and was stalking the student, prompting the pastor to ask the family to leave their church — though the pastor later apologized and invited the family back after learning the accusations were false, per the Daily Voice account.
Principal Allegedly Told Family to Stop Filing Complaints
Ramsey High School Principal Michael Thumm allegedly told T.A. and his parents in September 2024 to stop filing harassment, intimidation and bullying complaints, according to the lawsuit as reported by Daily Voice. The alleged harassment did not let up: in January 2026 a student falsely claimed T.A. had raped someone, and the following month another student accused him of trying to poison classmates with fentanyl-laced candy, the suit claims.
In March 2026, a student punched T.A. in the stomach during auto shop class while a teacher reportedly watched and merely told the student to watch his language, the lawsuit alleges. By June 2026, another student allegedly slapped T.A. across the face, breaking his glasses — an incident the family says capped years of harassment that began in January 2022 and left T.A. with serious physical and emotional injuries, plus more than $3,600 in medical expenses, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleges negligence, discrimination under New Jersey's Law Against Discrimination, defamation, and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress, the Daily Voice report states. The family is seeking compensatory and punitive damages, attorney's fees and a jury trial, though the lawsuit does not list a specific dollar amount, as noted by Daily Voice. The suit was filed by attorney Frederick E. Gerson of Feitlin, Youngman, Karas & Gerson, LLC, a Glen Rock-based firm, according to the outlet.
Ramsey Superintendent Andrew C. Matteo said the district does not comment on pending litigation, per Daily Voice's reporting.
Part of a Broader Pattern in New Jersey Schools
The allegations arrive as statewide bullying numbers show a decline: New Jersey recorded 7,455 confirmed harassment, intimidation and bullying incidents during the 2024-25 school year, down 12% from 8,494 the year before, according to nj.com. That's also down sharply from the 9,011 confirmed incidents recorded in the 2022-23 school year. The outlet notes that state reports do not detail the specific allegations in individual cases or how they were resolved.
This is not the first time Ramsey schools have faced a bullying-related lawsuit. In 2012, the district agreed to pay $4.2 million to settle a case brought by the family of a middle school student who was paralyzed after a known bully punched him in the abdomen, a lawsuit that alleged officials knew or should have known about the attacker's violent tendencies and failed to comply with the state's anti-bullying law, according to the nj.com report. That settlement did not include an admission of liability or fault.
Other Bergen County families have made similar claims in recent years. In October 2024, the mother of an 11-year-old student sued Midland Park Public Schools, alleging the district failed to stop physical and verbal bullying at Highland Elementary School that began in December 2023 and included repeated physical and emotional abuse. That lawsuit claimed the child was targeted over his Spanish ethnicity and perceived sexual orientation, and that officials took no effective action despite the mother meeting with them several times between December 2023 and March 2024, per nj.com's reporting.
Elsewhere in the state, Mount Olive schools settled a lawsuit alleging a cover-up of bullying for $750,000 in structured payments in 2021, then paid $300,000 three years later to settle an employee's lawsuit over an alleged wrongful suspension tied to the same case. In 2026, the Point Pleasant Board of Education agreed to pay $45,000 to settle a separate bullying lawsuit while denying any wrongdoing, nj.com reported.
