DETROIT-In the hallways at school, he called her a slut.
He waited for her outside her classrooms, followed her around campus and told her that he hoped she would be raped, court records show.
Then one day, someone wrote the word "whore" in dog feces on her garage door-and egged and toilet-papered her house.
Broken, the girl tried to take her life days later, swallowing a bottle of Adderall pills.
"Why won't (he) leave me alone?" she cried out in the hospital, where she hallucinated for days after her suicide attempt. "I can't take it anymore. Everyone hates me. I am a whore. They need to know my 13 reasons why."
These gut-wrenching details are spelled out in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday against the Plymouth-Canton Community Schools district, which is accused of mishandling the girl's numerous sexual harassment complaints.
The plaintiff is a 17-year-old girl who says she was stalked, bullied and sexually harassed for 16 months by an ex-boyfriend during her freshman and sophomore year at Canton High School, where she was an A and B student and a member of the award-winning marching band.
According to the 31-page lawsuit, the girl and her mother made 10 complaints to the school about the boy, but nothing was ever done. One school officer allegedly told the mom "kids will be kids" while another told the mother he thought her daughter was lying about the harassment.
But the harassment was "extreme and ongoing," even after the suicide attempt, the lawsuit states, alleging that after the girl's hospitalization, the boy continued to follow her at school, show up at her band activities and once shoved her into a metal fence and injured her hand.
"The fact that this district would let this kind of egregious harassment and bullying go on for as long as it has is astonishing to me in this day and age," said the girl's attorney, Jennifer Salvatore, adding the lawsuit was a last resort for her clients. "They made 10 complaints. They had to get a PPO (personal protection order). I think sometimes litigation is the only way to call institutions' attention to the fact that they have a legal responsibility here and that kids' lives are at stake."
The lawsuit also raises questions about Plymouth-Canton's commitment to combating bullying, sexual harassment and teen suicide.
"Tragically, (the girl's) suicide attempt was not an isolated incident. Three Plymouth-Canton high school students have taken their lives in the past year," the lawsuit states, adding the district's failure "to address gender-based harassment could well have cost another student her life."
According to Salvatore, another high school student in the Plymouth-Canton district recently filed a complaint over similar issues with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights
The Plymouth-Canton Community School District declined comment on allegations in the lawsuit, but issued this statement to the Free Press.
"The district does not tolerate harassment of any kind. All allegations of harassment are taken seriously, are investigated thoroughly, and responded to with appropriate action," the Plymouth-Canton school district stated, adding it is "unable to comment on any specific student matter."
According to Salvatore, it remains unclear what, if any, action was taken against the boy in this case.
"My client's' mother was told, 'We'll talk to him.' But we don't' really know what happened," Salvatore said, noting the school district has "incredibly robust" Title IX policies in place.
"The problem is that the administrators don't follow them-they don't seem to understand their obligations under the law," said Salvatore, who is calling on schools to be more proactive in fighting sexual harassment, especially in the wake of the #metoo movement.
"Schools are really in the best position to address this kind of conduct," Salvatore said, stressing "The school has a legal responsibility to address it."
More than a year of abuse
According to the lawsuit, here is what led the now-high school junior to sue her school district over a boy who allegedly taunted her for more than a year, to the point of wanting to die.
In the summer of 2016, just before the start of her freshman year in high school, a 14-year-old girl started dating an older boy from Salem High School, which is part of the Canton-Plymouth school district.
The relationship was short-lived. In August, after three to four weeks of dating, they broke up.
Then the school year started.
The girl went to Canton High School, which is in the same educational park as Salem High School. The schools share facilities and students can register for classes on both campuses.
When she returned to school, her ex-boyfriend began to stalk and intimidate her by calling her names like 'slut' and 'whore' in the hallways, flipping her off and waiting for her outside of her classrooms.
At a football game, the boy allegedly hurled the same insults to the girl as he pointed at her and shouted vulgar names while she played in the marching band.
In December 2016, the girl went to her counselor and filed a complaint after learning the boy had told one of her friends that he hoped she "gets raped again." During their relationship, the girl had confided in the boy that she had been sexually assaulted when she was a toddler-information he would later taunt her with.
After the girl went to the counselor about the rape comment, the counselor called her mother and told her that she would "handle it." The school principal also called the mother to apologize and said the school would "handle it," according to court documents.
The boy was verbally reprimanded.
Two months later, at a "Snowcoming" school dance, the boy taunted the girl again about being molested. In front of a large group of students, he looked at the girl and yelled, "I hope she gets raped again!"
The following Monday at school, the girl reported the harassment to her counselor.
The principal and counselor called the mother again and said they would take care of the situation and that the boy had been warned to stop.
No Title IX procedures were taken.
Then came complaint No. 3.
Throughout March 2017, the boy continued to verbally harass the girl in the hallways, wait outside her class and follow her around, court records allege.
On March 31, 2017, the day before spring break, he and his friend flipped the girl off and called her a "whore"-an incident that was captured on surveillance video.
Then came the incident that broke her. During spring break, the word "whore" was written in dog feces on the garage door, her home was egged and toilet-papered, and all of the tires on the car parked in her driveway were flattened.
After break, she reported the incident to her school counselor. A school resource officer said an investigation would follow. Meanwhile, the girl was plotting her suicide.
Suicide attempt was prompted by bullying
Days after the graffiti incident, the girl researched how many Adderall it would take to kill herself. She located a family member's prescription bottle, swallowed dozens of pills and posted on social media that she had taken the pills and wanted to die.
That same morning, despite the toxic levels of drugs in her system, she went to school, attended two classes and spent four hours walking around with friends as she was too agitated to sit in class.
While wandering confusedly around the school, three school personnel saw her, but no one sought medical attention.
At the end of the school day, her friends got her on a school bus, though she has no recollection of how she got home. Her mother noticed something was wrong, realized what happened and rushed her to the University of Michigan Hospital.
Upon arrival at the hospital, the girl's kidneys were shutting down. She hallucinated for several days, but doctors were able to stabilize her. She was then admitted to a child psychiatric unit, where she spent two weeks detoxing and receiving therapy.
On April 19, 2017, while the girl was hospitalized, a school resource officer contacted her mother to discuss an incident in which the boy and his friend had flipped her daughter off at school and called her a whore.
The officer said he interviewed the two boys and determined "kids will be kids." He did not know about the suicide attempt, so the mother informed him. The officer said he would write up a report.
To date, no report has ever been furnished to the girl or her mother.
Return to school, harassment continues
In May 2017, the girl and her mom met with school officials to discuss a plan for her to return to school. Her class schedule was going to be changed to make sure she did not have a class in the same building as the boy. And she'd have access to a "Zen Room" and counselor whenever necessary.
On May 4, 2017, the girl returned to school.
Two weeks later, the boy approached her, walking next to her on a path, in the hallway and up the stairs. The girl went to the office and reported the incident. Her mother called the school, again.
More than three weeks later, a school official emailed the mother and said an investigation would be underway, but that she could not disclose how the boy was being disciplined.
Meanwhile, the girl kept running into the boy at school.
On June 2, 2017, she filed a police report with the school resource officer, detailing the harassment.
But the harassment would continue the following school year, even though school officials assured her that the boy would not have any classes with her or be in the same building. Her sophomore year, on the first day of school, the boy followed her to classes. He then showed up at her band activities and stared at her.
On Sept. 18, 2017, the girl and her mother attended a meeting with school officials, during which the girl "repeatedly informed everyone present that she did not feel safe at school."
That next day, the boy crossed paths with the girl between schools, came up close to her and shoved her into a metal fence, bruising her hand.
After this incident, the girl stopped attending school out of fear for her safety. She was treated for anxiety and depression and returned to school weeks later on a lighter schedule. She started taking online classes and wanted to continue marching in the band, though she was told she was not permitted to be in the band if she wasn't in school full-time.
In early October 2017, a school resource officer asked the mother whether she wanted to press charges against the boy for slamming her daughter into a fence. The mother said yes. That same month, her mother petitioned the court for a personal protection order against the student, which was issued on Oct. 25, 2017.
On Halloween, the mother followed up with Canton Police to find out the status of the investigation involving the metal fence incident.
Police told her the case was closed for lack of evidence, though her daughter had never been interviewed by police or anyone else.
Meanwhile, back at school, the stalking continued. The boy would show up in hallways and stare the girl down. School officials suggested the girl take a different route through school to avoid him, court records say.
On Nov. 2, 2017, the boy passed the girl on a path between schools and grabbed the sleeve of her sweatshirt. She reported the incident to school officials, with her mother on speakerphone.
That was Complaint No. 10.
Retaliation followed.
On Nov. 8, 2017, a school resource officer called the mother to tell her that he had concluded his investigation and that he felt the girl had lied. Moreover, he said that he believed the girl was deliberately trying to run into the boy by showing up to school early.
The officer allegedly threatened the girl that if she filed another "false" report, the school would press felony charges against her.
The girl and her mother had enough. They filed a complaint with the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights and the government opened an investigation last year.
The lawsuit followed, alleging the school district failed to protect the girl from ongoing harassment and assaults, scarring her emotionally and academically. Currently, the girl is not able to attend school because of anxiety and stress related to the harassment. The district has offered her 10 hours a week of off-site tutoring, but won't let her participate in marching band.
"This District has utterly failed this student," Salvatore said. "Rather than properly address this family's repeated reports of harassment by a male student, district administrators essentially did nothing. They let my client suffer until she tried to kill herself."