Schools
$140,000 Settlement For Bullied SFV Disabled Student Approved
A special-needs middle schooler was the target of bullying and harassment culminating in an assault that broke his arm, the suit alleged.
LOS ANGELES, CA — A judge Tuesday approved a nearly $140,000 payment by Los Angeles Unified to a 16-year-old boy who alleged he was injured on a middle-school campus by another student who broke the boy's left arm.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas D. Long gave his nod to a settlement of a lawsuit brought on behalf of the plaintiff, identified only as C.R. The boy will receive almost $70,000 after attorneys' fees and other costs are deducted from the $139,500 settlement.
The judge ordered that the funds be placed in a blocked account created on the boy's behalf. Long's approval of the accord was needed because the plaintiff is a minor.
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The teen, a special-needs student and North Hollywood resident, is a former Roy Romer Middle School student. The suit alleges the school administration negligently supervised a second pupil, identified as student A, who is accused of assaulting C.R. and breaking his left arm on campus on April 4, 2019.
Beginning in the fall of 2018, the plaintiff became the target of disability-based bullying and harassment at Romer School, the suit alleged.
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About two weeks before the assault on the plaintiff, an attorney sent a cease-and-desist letter to Romer School's assistant principal detailing the prior alleged harassment of the boy, but the school "failed to provide plaintiff with a safe school environment," according to the suit.
In their court papers, attorneys for the LAUSD stated that the suit's emotional-distress claims were "defective."
City News Service
