The family of a high school senior at Waterbury Arts Magnet School who committed suicide after years of alleged taunting and abuse from fellow students has sued the school for at least $1 million.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday afternoon in Waterbury Superior Court, alleges 17-year-old Alison Ternig was the victim of bullying from peers from September 2014 until her death last June. The incidents, the lawsuit claims, included her constantly being called fat and ugly to crude comments about sex.

The last straw, the lawsuit alleges, was on June 5, the day before Ternig killed herself. On that day, the suit maintains, Ternig accidentally got on the wrong bus following a trip to Six Flags New England when students on the bus verbally attacked her, yelling “get your f—– fat ass off our bus, you don't belong here.”

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Marianne Berthiaume, Ternig's mother.

Jamie Sullivan, the attorney for the family, said Wednesday there were many red flags that the popular magnet school ignored.

Specifically, Sullivan said, Ternig's tormentors were rarely, if ever, disciplined and the school looked the other way at the alleged abuse.

“They ignored complaints made by the mother about the incessant and cruel bullying of her daughter,” said Sullivan, a partner with Howard, Kohn, Sprague & FitzGerald in Hartford. “This was going on for years and they did nothing about it.”

Sullivan said plans should have been put in place to prevent or alleviate the bullying.

“They could have disciplined the bullies,” Sullivan said, adding, “They could have separated them from Alison. Failing that, they could have sent the bullies to another school. But none of that was done.”

Sullivan said he believes most of those who bullied Ternig were female students.

Retired lawyer and former state Rep. Howard Klebanoff, who represented children with special needs for more than 40 years, said many of his cases revolved around bullying.

“I represented many students who were bullied, including one who committed suicide,” said Klebanoff, a former attorney with the U.S. Department of Labor. “Some kids are just do depressed and so down.”

Klebanoff said the national issue of bullying has also “grown substantially in the last 10 to 15 years” in Connecticut.

“I do not know what to attribute the increase to, but the internet and cyberbullying has expanded greatly to make the situation much worse,” he said.

Klebanoff said there are laws on the books to address bullying in schools. In 2002, the Connecticut Legislature passed a law directing all public school districts in the state to develop and implement a bullying policy. The law was amended several times, but the law requires schools to permit anonymous reporting of bullying, with annual reports to students and parents on updates to the policies. The legislation is part of what the state calls a “safe school-climate plan.”

The Connecticut Department of Education is required to keep statistics on bullying statewide. Its communications director, Peter Yazbak, did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

Klebanoff said all school personnel and parents must take an active role in addressing the issue of bullying.

“When there is real serious bullying, the school will call the [offending] students, bring in the parents and make the parents understand that their child could face serious consequences of being expelled from school—and in some cases arrested.”

The lawsuit filed by Ternig's family claims that in 2014 she told a friend she was on “this horrible plane of despair” and contemplating suicide. The school removed her from class for threatening to kill herself, but allegedly “lied to police that there was no abuse,” the lawsuit said.

The Waterbury Board of Education had not yet assigned an attorney to the case Wednesday. Linda Wihbey, Waterbury's corporation counsel, said her office in all likelihood would be representing the city. “The lawsuit has not been served on Waterbury,” Wihbey told the Connecticut Law Tribune Wednesday morning when asked to comment.

Magnet middle and high school principal Lauren Elias declined to comment Wednesday on the specifics of the lawsuit.

Elias did say “Ally was a great girl who was loved and respected by all of our staff. Her death was met with tragic sadness by students and staff.”

Sullivan said Ternig's mother wants bullying addressed in a meaningful manner.

“She wants this never to happen to any other child,” Sullivan said. “That can be achieved by having proper training and education of staff and students.”