Two families have announced that they're filing separate civil action lawsuits against the Amador County Unified School District.

One lawsuit stems from an incident in 2007 when the words "Burn Jew, burn" were carved into a football locker belonging to Justin Zysman, a Jewish student whose paternal grandparents were holocaust survivors. The Zysman family claims Amador High's staff allowed the words to remain on Justin's locker for nearly a year before removing them.

In June 2009, the school's principal, Alan Van Velzen, acknowledged in an interview with the Ledger Dispatch that "a misunderstanding" had allowed the words to stay on the locker for "a long period of time." Van Velzen expressed regret over the incident and offered photographic proof that more anti-Semitic vandalism around the campus had been immediately removed by his staff. He also pointed out that he'd suspended one student and expelled another for bad behavior toward Zysman. Van Velzen said neither of those incidents appeared to be motivated by anti-Semitism.

According to the Zysman family, the "Burn Jew, burn" incident was just one episode in an ongoing barrage of harassment and physical assaults that Justin experienced in his first two years at Amador High. Justin said that harassment included students openly displaying the Nazi salute to him around campus and twice urinating on his gym clothes while they were in his football locker. Justin's parents, Molly and Jason Zysman, have formally demanded the school district launch an investigation into who carved the hate-filled words into the locker, which students urinated on their son's clothes and which students have been displaying the Nazi salute as a form of menacing.

In official letters to the family, ACUSD Superintendent Dick Glock has declined to do any of those things, maintaining the Zysmans did not file their original complaints within 20 days of when the incidents occurred. The law offices of Beyer, Pongratz & Rosen in Sacramento will now file a civil action against the school district on behalf of Justin Zysman.

Glock has stated that he and school board trustees cannot comment on the case for legal reasons, though he asserted that the facts about what happened to Zysman "are in dispute."

The Zysman family says the lawsuit is not about money but making a point about integrity. "I feel like it was unnecessary it ever came to this point," Molly said. "I want people to understand that the district could have avoided this by addressing our concerns."

Molly's husband has a slightly different take on the situation. "I don't think that it's unnecessary that it happened," Jason observed. "I think it's a shame."

A new development in the Zysman case has also sparked controversy. Justin's uncle, Todd Goldstein, recently called Glock on the phone about Justin's harassment. What transpired during that conversation has now become a heated point of debate. The Zysmans filed a new complaint with the school district for alleged remarks Glock made about Justin and their entire family during the call. The district hired independent investigator Winston Pingrey to look into that matter. The district recently informed the Zysmans that, due to the results of Pingrey's investigation, no action would be taken against Glock.

When Goldstein was interviewed by Pingrey during that investigation, he brought along a witness who works at a high level of Sacramento government to observe what was said. Goldstein is now worried the district is not being candid about what he told Pingrey. In a request filed under the California Public Records Act, the Zysmans have asked the district for a copy of Pingrey's entire report.

"We don't want a biased summary of what the board president Mary Walser claims the report says," explained Molly. "We want a copy of what Winston Pingrey actually wrote about his findings. We want his documentation of the interview with Todd Goldstein while a witness was present."

On Sept. 25, the school district's attorney, David W. Girard, denied the Zysmans' request for a copy of the investigation. In a letter to them, Girard said, "On the facts of this matter, the public interest served by non-disclosure of the record clearly outweighed the public interest served by disclosure of the record."

The Zysmans are still deciding on how to handle the issue of the Pingrey report. "I'm not sure yet what we'll do," Jason said. "But for now I really want to thank all of the members of this community who have supported us, including numerous teachers, retired teachers and religious leaders, as well as a lot of people who were complete strangers. It means a lot to our family."

In addition, a second lawsuit is being filed against ACUSD - by Shelley Scott on behalf of her daughter, Amador High student Lindsey Gray. Scott claimed that Gray had been recognized as a talented cheerleader by the school's coaches until she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes last December, at which point she was discriminated against and excluded from certain activities. Amador High cheer coaches deny any intentional discrimination.

Scott also feels that Amador High School's entire staff is dangerously lacking training when it comes recognizing students who are having a diabetic emergency. Scott formally requested that the school district provide Amador's staff with future training on how to handle themselves in such a crisis.

In an official letter Glock wrote to Scott on May 14, he refused to provide the training, stating, "There is no mandatory training for type 1 diabetes at this time." Glock soon told the Ledger Dispatch that the staff had already received a "directive" on how to recognize diabetic emergencies. As evidence, he produced a multi-panel cartoon that portrayed a student going into anaphylactic shock. Glock said the cartoon had been distributed to some members of his staff.

Scott filed a request with the district for new policies and procedures regarding diabetic students, diabetic emergency training and accommodations for Gray. On Monday, the district denied all of her requests. Scott informed the Ledger Dispatch she was in the process of filing a civil action against ACUSD.

"The lawsuit is not about my daughter making the football (cheer) squad," Scott said. "It's about the school's policies toward the safety of its students and how my daughter has been treated. This whole thing has been very hard on her."