The South Jersey school where an 11-year-old died by suicide is the subject of a civil rights investigation

Federal authorities have launched an investigation into complaints that a South Jersey school district violated the civil rights of students, including an 11-year-old girl who died by suicide after her family said she was relentlessly bullied by classmates.

The complaints accuse the Mount Holly school system in Burlington County of discriminating against students based on race, national origin, sexual orientation and gender, Philip R. Sellinger, the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, wrote in a letter last month to the district. He did not indicate how many complaints were received.

Sellinger said the U.S. Attorney Office’s Civil Rights Division was looking into how the Mount Holly district has handled allegations of harassment by students toward their peers and whether federal laws that protect students from discrimination had been violated. Such investigations are not uncommon but rarely are publicly disclosed while the case is pending.

The investigation came to light after district lawyers recently sought to delay proceedings in a wrongful-death lawsuit, filed by the family of Felicia LoAlbo-Melendez who died in 2023, alleging the sixth grader asked for protection from her classmates at in Mount HollyF.W. Holbein School, but school officials did nothing about it.

In a motion filed this month in Superior Court, Jeffrey P. Catalano, a lawyer representing the school district, cited the federal investigation in seeking the delay in the civil case. A copy of the letter from Sellinger was attached as an exhibit. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

In his motion, Catalano requested a 90-day postponement in the wrongful death lawsuit, arguing it would be a challenge to simultaneously handle both cases. He said the district “wholeheartedly denies” the federal investigation will lend any truth to the allegations cited by Sellinger in his letter. Catalano did not respond to messages Tuesday seeking comment.

According to the letter from Sellinger and Junis L. Baldon, an assistant U.S. Attorney in the Civil Rights Division, investigators have cast a wide net for information, records and documents beyond the allegations in the LoAlbo-Melendez case. Federal authorities may visit the district to interview students and staff, they said.

The letter seeks disaggregated data on all alleged victims and anyone accused of bullying. It also requested policies and procedures regarding harassment, bullying and intimidation for students at Holbein as well as the district’s two other elementary schools, John Brainerd and Gertrude Folwell. It also requested a list of employees responsible for enforcing the policies.

“The information and documents will assist us in objectively evaluating these allegations and determining what action, if any, may be warranted,” the letter said. “Our investigation into the allegations is preliminary in nature, and we have reached no conclusion as to whether any violation of federal law has occurred.”

Mount Holly school Superintendent Robert Mungo has not responded to telephone and email messages seeking comment. The wrongful death lawsuit names Mungo, the principal, counselors, and teachers, accusing them of failing to protect the girl.

Diane Sammons, a lawyer with Nagel Rice in Roseland who filed the lawsuit on behalf of LoAlbo-Melendez’s mother, said she has been contacted by the parents of other students in the district who alleged their child was bullied. The federal probe bolsters her case that the district has problems, she said.

“It’s so obvious that it’s an issue that permeates throughout the district,” Sammons said Tuesday. “It’s bigger than Felicia.”

The 11-year-old was found unresponsive on Feb. 6, 2023, at the school on Levis Drive. Two days later, “she succumbed to her injuries cradled in the arms of her mother,” the lawsuit said. A medical examiner ruled her death a suicide.

Described as a compassionate and bright student who skipped a grade, the girl was very active in extracurricular activities at school, according to the lawsuit. As a member of the Random Acts of Kindness Club, she was an advocate for antibullying.

She suffered “an extended, persistent period of bullying that occurred during the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school year,” according to the lawsuit. She was harassed and bullied about her physical appearance, Latina roots, and “perceived sexual orientation” the lawsuit said.

In the weeks before her death, the child was taunted by students to “unlive yourself,” the lawsuit said. In class, she was called ugly, and was the target of ethnic slurs and other offensive names, the lawsuit said.

She wrote letters and e-mails to school officials and had proposed starting a “trauma club” for herself and other students who were being harassed. School officials promised to rearrange the girl’s class schedule to minimize contact with alleged bullies but never did so, the lawsuit said.

» READ MORE: Her 11-year-old daughter died by suicide. Now this South Jersey mother is fighting to toughen anti-bullying laws in schools.

Sammons, who is seeking punitive damages for the family, believes bullying incidents are underreported at Holbein and not investigated properly. She wants better enforcement for New Jersey’s anti-bullying laws, already among the toughest in the country.

“What are the problems that allowed that to happen?” she asked.