The father of a 16-year-old Alabama boy who died by suicide filed a wrongful death lawsuit against his son’s private school, claiming “systemic failures” to stop “incessant bullying” caused his son’s death.

John Nichols, the father of 16-year-old Bradley David Nichols, who died by suicide in 2022, accused Edgewood Academy in Elmore County of ignoring its own handbook on student harassment and bullying and failing to inform Bradley’s parents of the bullying despite knowing it was taking place.

“This case involves truly tragic circumstances and systemic failures by defendants which allowed, encouraged, failed to prevent and failed to stop incessant bullying which led to the death of Bradley David Nichols,” the lawsuit filed Friday in Elmore County Circuit Court alleges.

Jay Adams, Edgewood Academy’s headmaster and Bradley’s geometry teacher at the time of the bullying, was fired from the private school “for a lack of institutional control and lack of discipline,” according to the suit.

He and Susan Barner, an Edgewood Academy teacher at the time of the incidents who has since been promoted to “head of school,” according to the lawsuit, were also sued in their individual capacities.

Barner could not immediately be reached for a response to the suit.

At 6-feet tall and 270 pounds, Bradley “was a loving 16-year-old teenager with a heart to match,” the lawsuit stated.

But the teen “was also an emotionally complex 16-year-old with a slight speech impediment.” The impediment, coupled with “his gentle nature,” made him a target for bullying, according to the suit.

Besides being made fun of for his speech impediment and his weight, Bradley was told to “go kill himself or he had no balls” by a female student and had food thrown at him while students recorded the bullying, the suit claimed.

After Bradley’s death in 2022, students made a Snapchat video titled “The Lynching of John Nichols,” the lawsuit alleged.

The lawsuit does not seek an exact dollar amount from the schools in damages.