A3 + PLUS >> Lawnmower dispute just won’t die, Story below TIGERS CHS GOLF Wake-up call Boys claim for Columbia district title See Page 5A See Page 5A TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2019 | YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER SINCE 1874 | $1.00 Lake City Reporter LAKECITYREPORTER.COM LIVE OAK City, Mother county blames getting teacher CARL MCKINNEY/Lake City Reporter for son’s County Commissioner Tim Murphy, left, shares a laugh with City cozier Councilman Chris Greene, center, and Commissioner Rocky Ford before a joint city/county meeting Monday night at City Hall. Story, 3A. suicide Lawsuit says science teacher bullied child, who took his own life. By CARL MCKINNEY HANGIN’ OUT
[email protected] The mother of a Suwannee High School student who killed himself IN LAKE CITY with a hunting rifle nearly two years ago is suing the Suwannee County School District, alleging the ninth grader’s suicide was the result of repeat bullying and harassment from his teacher. Gloria Simmons, the parent of SHS student Kaleb Simmons, 14 when he died, filed a lawsuit in the Third Judicial Circuit on Oct. 5 accusing teacher Jerry Jolicoeur of exhibiting an “open, notorious, and protracted pattern of bullying by systematically and chronically inflicting hurt or psychological dis- tress” on the student. Jolicoeur was Kaleb’s fifth period science teacher. BLAME continued on 2A TONY BRITT/Lake City Reporter Jacob Morrison, 10, a fifth-grader at Suwannee Intermediate School, hangs from a piece of playground equipment Monday afternoon at Youngs Park. Several children from Suwannee and Columbia counties were at the park Monday as the Columbia Cruiser hit School district didn’t have classes because of a teachers’ work day and Suwannee County was observing Columbus Day.