Parents of a 14-year old boy who was blinded in one eye after being attacked in a New York City middle school are today filing a $16 million lawsuit against the City. “For me to send him to school with two eyes and come back with one eye is really absurd,” Pierre Ulysse, father of the victim, Kardin Ulysse, told the Daily News:
Kardin, an eighth-grader, was set upon by a pair of seventh-graders who were calling him a “f—–g f—-t,†a “p—-,†a “transvestite†and “gay,†according to a Department of Education occurrence report.
While one schoolmate pinned the victim’s arms, the other rained punches on Kardin’s face, head and neck.
Kardin broke away and the fight continued in the cafeteria until school safety officers and school aides finally intervened.
The boy’s family has retained lawyer Sanford Rubenstein, who will file a notice Tuesday to sue the city for $16 million for failing to properly supervise the students.
Rubenstein also called for the authorities to investigate whether the attack is a hate crime and upgrade the criminal charges to felonies. Because they’re minors, the two alleged bullies were charged with misdemeanors in Family Court.
The city’s Corporation Counsel did not immediately return a call for comment.
Asked why the teens were using anti-gay slurs, Kardin said: “I think he said that to hurt me and because he’s a bad person.â€
The News adds:
A DOE survey last year stated that 63% of the students at the school reported at least some of the time classmates are harassed or threatened based on their race, religion, ethnicity, citizenship status, gender, sexual orientation or disability.
The same survey stated that 40% of the school’s students didn’t feel safe in the building and 44% said students threaten or bully other students “most of the time†or “all of the time.â€