NYC mom: 1st graders assaulted for rejecting fight club
NEW YORK - A New York City mother claims a group of eighth graders assaulted her 6-year-old daughter when she refused to join their public school fight club, reports CBS New York.
Latoya Gore says two other first-graders and a boy were also victimized by the four girls who were supposed to be tutoring them at P.S. 111/Jacob Blackwell School in Queens.
The Daily News says Gore filed a notice of claim Wednesday informing the Department of Education (DOE) of her intent to sue for $5.5 million.
The March 10 incident during school hours was caught on videotape.
DOE spokesman Jason Fink said what was depicted in the video "is completely unacceptable." He says the matter has been referred to the special commissioner of investigation.
"They were being forced, coerced, threatened, cajoled into fighting each other and when they didn't want to do that, that's when the eighth grader started dragging, hitting and swinging them," attorney Pamela Roth said.
Scott Rynecki, another attorney, said the children were thrown up against a wall and had their hair pulled out by the older students and that there was no adult supervision.
The teachers responsible for the students at the time of the incident have since been removed from the classroom pending completion of the investigation.
"I think all the parents have a question: Where is the supervision in this school?," Rynecki said, according to CBS New York.
"There was an attempt to cover up the incident," he added.
According to the station, Gore says she was first notified her daughter was injured at school after getting a call from a school nurse, who said the 6-year-old was playing and had hit her head on a desk.