Wible v. School District of Philadelphia

Juvenile Law Center joined 22 advocacy organizations on an amicus brief filed by Education Law Center-PA and Women’s Law Project in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania in support of Amanda Wible, a student whose schools ignored her pleas for intervention and protection from increasingly violent harassment that began in elementary school. The student eventually withdrew from school at the end of ninth grade.
 
Amici argued that educational institutions’ failure to address and remedy harassment leads to adverse outcomes for survivors and in particular for girls, students who do not conform to sex stereotypes, and students who embody multiple marginalized identities. Amici urged the Court to affirm the trial court’s conclusion that the Pennsylvania Human Relations Act (PHRA) recognizes claims of discrimination against educational institutions that fail to address and remedy student-on-student harassment. Amici further urged the Court to uphold the trial court’s decision to hold the School District liable, clarify the standard of liability as negligence, and reject the School District’s immunity arguments.
 
Ultimately, the parties settled, and the school district discontinued its appeal.