Pro-Charter Group Sues City Over School Safety

Parents and guardians of 11 students filed a class-action lawsuit against the city's Department of Education, accusing it of failing to enforce regulations against bullying and violence. The lawsuit was spearheaded by the group Families for Excellent Schools and first reported by Buzzfeed on Wednesday.

Districts are required under state law to have a system for reporting, investigating and stemming violence in schools. But the suit claims the New York City school chancellor's regulations are ineffective and inadequate. It also claims in-school violence and bullying have a disproportionate impact on black and Latino students, students who are not hetero-sexual and those with disabilities. 

"They don't file the incident reports after the incident happens," said the parents' attorney, Jim Walden. "They don't ask the student for the written narrative, they conduct no investigation, they never contact the parents to tell them whether or not the incident's been substantiated. They often don't punish the bully."

The city's law department said it would review the complaint. Meanwhile, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio released a statement. In it he said every incident of school violence was troubling but overall the climate had improved.

“School safety is doing a very good job continuing a trend that started in the last administration and continues — this year to date, the major crime in our schools is down 14.29 percent and other crimes down 6.77 percent," he said. "We absolutely have more work to do."

The legal action officially is on behalf of 11 children who range in age from seven to 16, hailing from four boroughs. All but one are still attending public schools; one is home schooled. 

A mother identified as Jane Doe 1 claimed her nine-year-old son was physically attacked on three separate occasions by a bully at his East Harlem school. She said he was choked by the other child in a cafeteria. But the principal ignored her complaints and, to the best of her knowledge, never reported the incidents.

"I have wrote the principal emails, he's not corresponding. Every time I go to talk to him he tells me he's going to handle it," she told WNYC. So far, she said, no action has been taken.

Walden said another child in the lawsuit was thrown down the stairs, one was repeatedly punched, and another child was "pushed very forcefully into a blackboard." Another child was grabbed by a teacher.

Families for Excellent Schools began its awareness campaign against school violence after a series of New York Times articles questioned disciplinary tactics at the Success Academy charter network run by Eva Moskowitz. The Department of Education refuted its claims that violence is on the rise in the city schools.

Charter schools also aren't immune to violence. There have been recent reports about a bullet found in a Success Academy charter and about concerns at a Queens charter school that a student talked about bringing a gun to school.