ALHAMBRA >> The parents of an 18-year-old teen with autism will sue Alhambra Unified School District because they allege Mark Keppel High School didn’t punish bullies who, for three years, called their son “Asian Nazi” and “Hitler,” according to documents obtained by this news organization.
In a claim for damages, Attorney Steven Wyner alleges AUSD was negligent because it failed to supervise students, discipline them or provide a full-time aide to teach their son social skills and prevent bullies from embarrassing and humiliating him. As a result, Wyner said the boy’s grades dropped and he was denied meaningful access to public education.
“It should also be remembered that thousands, if not millions, of Europeans not affiliated with the Nazis, who were aware of heinous acts of the Nazi Party, simply stood by and took no action whatsoever while Hitler and his henchmen engaged in implementing a policy of genocide,” the claim for damages says. “District administrators and staff … should be held accountable for their failure to perform their jobs and for their cowardly conduct.”
The teenager attended Mark Keppel High School from 2010 to 2013 — from ninth to 11th grade. In addition to special education services, AUSD also added speech and language impairment and specific learning disability to his list of eligible services in April 2011, according to the claim. His lawyer is asking for more than $10,000.
Superintendent Laura Tellez-Gagliano declined to comment because of pending litigation.
A 2013 letter informed the boy’s parents that “neither the district nor the school has the ability to eradicate intentionally mean behavior or bullying,” according to the claim.
The problem extends beyond this single case, Wyner said. The boy’s parents know others who have left AUSD because they couldn’t get adequate special education services for their children, he said.
“By the end of his junior year, he was refusing to go to school,” Wyner said. “He was socially ostracized. So mostly it’s a function of the fact that kids who get bullied like that constantly suffer emotionally from it. They have a disability to begin with, and then on top of that, they’re forced to deal with kids who are cruel, hateful and are saying things that are horrible.”
The bullying started because students noticed how the boy loved history, Wyner said. Students began greeting him with the Nazi salute in classrooms, hallways and locker room, the claim alleges. They provoked him by saying things such as “we are going to kill some Jews” and “Osama Bin Laden is not dead,” the claim says.
AUSD’s 2013-2014 handbook says the district doesn’t tolerate behavior that infringes on the safety of other students. Those who bully, intimidate or harass their peers are subject to a warning, counseling, suspension or even expulsion.
Yet students were not punished for their words or actions against the boy, the claim says. In fact, it alleges some teachers and administrators blamed the boy and said he needed to be able to take a joke and learn social skills.
The student documented his anxiety, depression and frustrations in a personal statement dated Dec. 5, 2012.
“Sometimes I can’t sleep because they think I look like Hitler, and I can’t stop thinking about the bullies,” he wrote. “I don’t want to go to Prom because it’s full of bullies. These bullies need to be stop, so the school can be safer for me and everyone else. They harass me the most, I want an extra person to help supervise me and make sure the bullies get in trouble for picking on me.”
AUSD declined to provide the teenager with a full-time aide in his senior year even though his parents said it was necessary for their son’s safety, the claim states.
As a result, the parents enrolled their son in a private school and requested that AUSD pay for it. The district said it was not obligated to pay for the student’s tuition because he already receives a “free appropriate public education” at Mark Keppel High School, the claim says.
