PORTSMOUTH — The parents of the Nathan Bruno have filed suit against officials in Portsmouth and Jamestown, claiming their negligence caused their son to suffer “extreme emotional pain and mental anguish” which led to his suicide on Feb. 7, 2018 at the age of 15.

The complaint was filed Tuesday, Nov. 12 in Superior Court by Providence attorney Peter J. Cerilli on behalf of Nathan’s parents, Richard P. Bruno, Jr. and Misty L. Kolbeck.

It names as defendants Lisa Mills, Portsmouth’s finance director; Ryan Moniz, former PHS varsity football coach and a teacher at the school; Stephen Trezvant, PHS athletic director; Joseph Amaral, principal of PHS; Paige Kirwin-Clair, assistant principal and interim principal of PHS; Christina D. Collins, Jamestown’s finance director; and Derek Carlino, a detective with the Jamestown Police Department.

The plaintiffs demand judgment against the defendants “jointly and severally, for compensatory damages, interest, and costs.”

Nathan took his life last year after rumors had spread around school he was one of the students responsible for making crank calls and texts, starting in December 2017, to the school’s football coach at the time, Mr. Moniz. The coach contacted police in his hometown of Jamestown to investigate, and they informed him in early January 2018 that Nathan was a suspect.

According to the complaint, Mr. Moniz, Mr. Amaral, Mr. Trezvant, and Ms. Kirwin-Clair, “as educators and administrators, owed a duty of reasonable care for the safety of Nathan Bruno.”

That included their obligation to “comply with codes of conduct and professional responsibility and school safety standards so as to provide all students, including Nathan Bruno, a safe and healthy learning environment,” the complaint stated.

According to the document, in December 2017 the Portsmouth school defendants became aware of the prank text messages from Nathan to Mr. Moniz.

The complaint continued: “In December of 2017 and until the time of Nathan Bruno’s death, defendants Moniz, Amaral, Trezvant, and Kirwin-Clair negligently breached their duties to Nathan Bruno through acts and omissions which placed mental and emotional stress upon Nathan Bruno in the weeks and days leading up to his death.”

These “acts and omissions” included, but were not limited to:

• “failing to communicate with Nathan’s parents about an active police investigation into their minor son;”

• “assigning Nathan to another physical education class without notifying Nathan’s father or guidance counselor, thereby concealing defendants’ knowledge of the investigation and actions towards Nathan;”

• “negligently supervising and allowing defendant Moniz to pressure Nathan to reveal the identity of other students who were involved in the prank text messaging by threatening to resign as the head football coach;”

• “meeting with Nathan in the school principal’s office to pressure him to reveal the identity of other students who were allegedly involved in the prank text messaging;”

• “compelling members of the football team to pressure Nathan to reveal the identity of other students involved in the prank text messaging;”

• “permitting and encouraging assistant football coaches to fraudulently threaten to resign;”

• “unreasonably and unfairly declining to meet with Nathan, who had communicated his desire to apologize for the prank text messaging;”

• “permitting defendant Moniz and administrators to involve members of the school community in an active police investigation into the prank text messaging while failing to notify Nathan’s parents regarding the police investigation of their minor son.”

The defendants, the complaints alleges, “breached their duties and were negligent in that they failed to exercise the requisite degree of care required by educators and administrators in maintaining the health and safety of Nathan Bruno.”

As a “direct and proximate result” of that negligence, Nathan “suffered extreme emotional pain and mental anguish which led to his suicide on Feb. 7, 2018,” the complaint contends.

Nathan’s parents have suffered the loss of their son’s “society and companionship,” 

Complaint against Jamestown

The court complaint also alleges negligence by Jamestown officials, saying the town and Detective Carlino “owed a duty to Nathan Bruno to exercise reasonable care and follow appropriate police practices with respect to the investigation …”

Detective Carlino, the suit maintains, “negligently and improperly conducted the investigation by sharing confidential police information gathered about Nathan Bruno with the complainant Ryan Moniz and others while not sharing such information with Nathan Bruno’s parents.”

‘Awareness and accountability’

Contacted last week, Mr. Bruno declined comment. 

In an e-mail to the Newport Daily News, he stated, “The administrative complaint process that I followed, to try to bring about changes that would prevent something like this from recurring, was unproductive and disappointing. Therefore, we have filed this lawsuit to try to bring about awareness and accountability that we hope will act as a catalyst for changes necessary to make sure this kind of tragedy will never happen again. No child and no family should have to endure what Nate and our family have and are going through.”