Teen's Parents Preparing to Sue Murray County School

A local family is taking action after they say their son's school system failed to save his life.

Tyler Long committed suicide last month and now his family is preparing to file a lawsuit against Murray County Schools because they say bullying caused his death.

Long suffered from a social disorder called asbergers and tried his best to live life as a normal teenage boy. However, his family says bullies at Murray County High School didn't let him.

"I think they killed my son, I think they led him to do what he did," says Tina Long.

Tyler's parents say the biggest bully of all may be the Murray County School system. David and Tina Long say they tried to warn school administrators about these bullies many times. The problem went on until the 17 year old took his own life.  Now, they've hired a lawyer to help them fight their son's battle. 

 

"We believe the school had an obligations than it did and had they taken those actions, this tragedy could have been averted," says W. Winston Briggs, the Long family attorney.

Winston Brigs has served the school system a formal anti litem notice on Tyler's behalf. It will give the school system 30 days to prepare for a possible lawsuit. No one answered when we tried reaching the Murray County School System for comment today. When we first reported this story last month they told us they extend their sympathies to the Long family, but cannot legally comment on student information..

Since the finger can be pointed in several directions Winston says they're still deciding the specifics of their claims.

"On behalf of the family they want to bring awareness about the bullying and hope changes will be made to the school system.," says W. Winston Briggs.

Briggs says the family hopes the lawsuit will put bullying procedures in place that trained teachers can use to handle these situations before they go too far.