A Brooklyn family is suing the city for a brutal incident that happened to their teen son. Click below to find out what happened.
A Brooklyn teen was left blind in one eye after a brutal assault by bullies shouting anti-gay epithets in the cafeteria of a city middle school, the Daily News has learned.
“My son is very upset. He says, ‘Daddy, am I ever going to be able to see again?’ †Pierre Ulysse said Monday.
His son, Kardin Ulysse, 14, has undergone two surgeries on his right eye since the June 5 beatdown at Roy H. Mann Junior High School in Bergen Beach. It is unclear whether the bullies’ multiple punches or the broken shards of lens from his eyeglasses caused the damage to his cornea.
“The doctor says he needs a transplant,†Pierre Ulysse said. “For me to send him to school with two eyes and come back with one eye is really absurd.
“I want the world to know about this,†he added.
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€
Kardin, who now wears a bandage over his right eye, said he had informed a Roy H. Mann dean that he had been a victim of bullying at the school for some time. Last October, another thug attacked him and tried to steal his school lunch money.
The parents of another 13-year-old student filed a lawsuit against Roy H. Mann last year alleging a pattern of bullying.
A DOE spokesman said the attack on Ulysse was taken “very seriously†by the principal, who notified the NYPD. The alleged assailants face disciplinary action in addition to the criminal prosecution, the spokesman said.
Pierre Ulysse said his son wants to be a doctor. They chose Roy H. Mann because they thought it was the best school in the area.
“We were wrong,†he said.
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€