Bullied student died by suicide. Lawsuit blames this KC area district, 7 staff members

Editor’s note: This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is at risk of self-harm, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline provides 24-hour support at 988.

Logan LeBlanc, a sophomore at Liberty North High School, felt so distraught that on March 6, he attempted suicide in his grandparents’ basement. He died five days later.

He was 16 years old.

A civil lawsuit filed in Clay County Circuit Court now aims to hold responsible not only the Liberty school district — claiming that the district was negligent in failing to protect LeBlanc from repeated bullying over two years — but also holds as liable seven employees.

Named in the suit are then-Liberty North Principal Precious Kurth, now an assistant superintendent for Kansas City Public Schools; Assistant Principals Lee Allen and Joshua Baldwin, counselors Jill Brock and Neil Corriston, Spanish teacher Susan Lynn and math teacher Matt Barnard.

While LeBlanc was a student at Liberty North, the lawsuit holds, he was “under the care, custody and control” of the defendants who had a duty to protect him from “foreseeable and unreasonable risks of harm by other students.”

Instead, it says, LeBlanc was repeatedly bullied and harassed by other students, including by a group nicknamed the Mercenaries. The district and staff not only failed to protect LeBlanc, the suit alleges, but also were negligent in failing to properly investigate the bullying and failed to follow the district’s written rules and policies on how to deal with bullying and warning signs of suicide.

“In fact, some of the Mercenaries had the audacity to go to Logan’s funeral,” attorney Daniel Zmijewski wrote in his filing. “By not addressing the Mercenaries and the repeated bullying taking place, the District had emboldened the Mercenaries to continue their reign of fear.

“Even after Logan’s death, the District learned nothing because yet another student at Liberty North that continued to be picked on by the Mercenaries attempted suicide in May. While the District claims to take mental health seriously, it ignores its specifically written rules.”

The Star attempted to contact all defendants. No individuals responded. Dallas Ackerman, a spokesman for the Liberty school district, responded with a statement, saying that they “will let the legal process take place.”

“First and foremost, the loss of a member of our school community is the ultimate tragedy,” the statement said, “and our thoughts continue to be with the family and friends of this young person that was lost too soon.

“Liberty Public Schools takes the health, safety and welfare of all our students seriously, and we have Broad policies in place that address this. Our school teams work tirelessly to ensure our students have resources readily available if in need of extra support.”

LeBlanc’s mother, Kristi Rice, remains grief-stricken and infuriated.

“These administrators did not take the time to know this child,” Rice told The Star. “He felt like nobody cared. That’s truly what I feel in my heart, that he felt he was better off gone from here because he didn’t matter.”

He was bullied for his weight

Zmijewski, who is representing Rice, was the attorney who in 2022 sued and ultimately settled a federal lawsuit with the McLouth Unified School District in Jefferson County, Kansas, for failing to properly respond to a student’s sexual relationship with an adult teacher. The student in that case, Haylee Weissenbach, was awarded $800,000.

The Liberty lawsuit spells out what Rice says happened to her son at Liberty North.

LeBlanc stood 6-foot-3 and 245 pounds. He was what Rice called “a gentle giant” who was, the lawsuit alleges, “frequently picked on because of his weight.”

Problems, it says, began in 2021 when he was 15, a freshman playing football for the school.

“Logan was large. … He was an easy target for kids to make fun of,” the suit says. “Kids joked bout his weight constantly. They also ridiculed him for other things like his haircut.”

That September, the suits says, LeBlanc wrote a note to his Spanish teacher saying, “I’m not happy, I can’t do this anymore, this whole place makes me sad and I just want to go home.“

At the end of the school day, the note was passed to his mother, the suit says. She sought help from medical professionals who diagnosed her son with depression. The district was made aware of his condition. LeBlanc was allowed to leave classes and speak to a school counselor when necessary.

LeBlanc and his mother at that time lived with her parents. LeBlanc allegedly told his grandfather that he was being bullied and harassed at school, including by the Mercenaries. When the grandfather approached Assistant Principal Lee Allen, the suits says, he was told, “What do you want me to do?”

The grandfather persisted in urging school officials to do something, the suit says.

The suit contends: “Despite numerous complaints, in violations of the District’s policy … requiring a report be written and investigation be conducted, Lee never wrote a single report that Logan’s family ever saw and Logan’s family was never advised of any investigation conducted into the repeated bullying.”

The district’s policy on bullying says that “within two school days of receiving a report of bullying, the principal or designee will initiate an investigation of the incident.”

‘In a terrible spot mentally’

LeBlanc’s condition worsened, even as his grandfather continued to complain, the suit contends.

In November 2021, it says, LeBlanc wrote a note to math teacher Matt Barnard, apologizing for not staying after school, saying his “mental health is at its lowest,” and “there are times that suicide has come across my mind. I’m in a terrible spot mentally.”

The note was forwarded to LeBlanc’s mother. District policy lays out a strict protocol for dealing with students thought to be contemplating suicide. The allegation is that that protocol was not followed.

Matters grew worse: LeBlanc was receiving counseling away from school. In school, it’s alleged that members of the Mercenaries beat him up in a bathroom. Instead of listening to LeBlanc and his family, the suit alleges, officials punished LeBlanc for fighting. His family saw it as the teen’s “self-preservation.”

“Despite complaints, no bullying reports were drafted and no safety plan to protect Logan was ever created or enacted. Instead,” the suit reads, ”the District chose to blame Logan for being the victim of the Mercenaries’ unprovoked attacks.

“Meanwhile, Logan would eat his lunch hidden in a corner somewhere in the building.”

He received D grades. The summer was a respite, but not long after entering school for his sophomore year last year, he was in another fight and was suspended. Bullying reportedly continued.

An ardent baseball fan, LeBlanc tried out for the team this past February. On Friday, March 3, he was cut.

The next Monday, he tried to kill himself. His grandfather found him within minutes and worked to resuscitate him. A few hours later, the lawsuit says, an anonymous tip was made to Courage2Report, a hotline aimed to prevent and report violence in schools. The anonymous tipsters explained they were concerned that LeBlanc would attempt to kill himself “after being bullied at school.”

He died five days later, March 11, at Children’s Mercy Hospital. His organs were donated for transplant.

He was buried at Terrace Park Cemetery in Kansas City.

LeBlanc’s family is seeking unspecified monetary damages.

“Even knowing how his mental health was, they (teachers and staff) did not take any of that into how they treated him,” Rice told The Star. “He wasn’t the most popular kid. He did have friends. …

“My son was the kind of kid who wanted peace. He wanted to go to school, be with friends, play baseball. He didn’t want any of this other stuff. Even in his note, he said, ‘I want to go home.’”

The lawsuit notes that the school district typically has a balloon release for students who die, but “no such release was done for Logan.”