A former Manhattan high school student claims he was subjected to persistent bullying and severe physical assault during his sophomore year. However, despite numerous complaints from him and his mother, the school administration did nothing to stop it.
Elijah Smith, now 21, claims in a lawsuit filed in Manhattan Supreme Court that the bullying began soon after he enrolled at Murray Hill’s Unity Center for Urban Technologies in the fall of 2018 and began in April 2019. He claims that the beating culminated in him being left with after-effects. Skull fractures, stab wounds, and lasting psychological trauma.
Smith’s attorney, Ezra Glazer, said there are “many steps[the Department of Education]must follow, including interviews with the perpetrator’s parents, reporting, and other documentation and intervention to prevent further attacks and further bullying.” ” he said.
“For a long time, the vice principal and the two deans just told him ‘yes’, told him there was nothing to worry about, and just kept his complaints under wraps.”
Smith’s lawsuit was originally filed by another attorney in 2020, but was delayed due to court gridlock caused by the pandemic. He will not be assigned to a judge until 2022.
Glaser said the city has been slow to turn over key documents in the case, including the complaints Smith alleges made, and has not named the school administrator who needed to be fired.
“The Department of Education still hasn’t come forward with a full explanation of what happened to Elijah,” he said.
A spokesperson for the City Attorney’s Office declined to comment on pending litigation. Unity High School Principal Fausto De La Rosa and other administrators did not respond to email messages.
Norman Thomas High School, located at Park Ave. South and E. 33rd St., closed in 2014 due to poor academic performance, and the building has since been divided into several smaller high schools.
Smith, then 17, enrolled in the Unity Urban Technology Center on the Thomas campus in the fall of 2018.
“I was looking for a school that had some type of arts program, and I decided to come here because it offered a variety of music classes and felt like a good fit,” Smith said.
Smith said he was quickly identified and his opponents began teasing him about various things, including recognizing his sexual identity.
“I was new to this school and I think they saw me as someone who could be bullied,” Smith said. “They called me names. They didn’t like me. They called me fat and ugly. And they called me gay. They didn’t like me. was a bully.”
Under the Department of Education’s anti-bullying procedures, schools are supposed to investigate all complaints and discipline the students responsible.
Shortly after the bullying began, Smith complained to the dean, who told her there was “no need to worry,” she said in the affidavit.
Smith said he also complained to the assistant dean. “I talked to him every week and told him what I was going through,” Smith said. “He said that sometimes children just talk.”
Mr Smith also complained to the headteacher, who said he would discuss it with the principal, but was told “it doesn’t appear to be a serious matter”.
Smith estimates he spoke with one administrator at least 20 times about bullying.
“(The principal) didn’t follow up at all. But when I talked to them, they basically ignored me,” he said.
The school could have ordered mediation with the parents of all the teens involved, but Smith and her mother, Angela Smith, said that was not done.
One day, some teenage boys cornered him while he was using the toilet at school, teased him and poured milk on him. Smith said he was also beaten by the same teens outside school in January 2019, and some of them were suspended.
His mother, who owns a catering business in the Bronx, said she met privately with the dean and assistant principal multiple times and was told there would be mediation with other parents, but that never happened.
“I don’t think they took it that seriously and he ended up getting assaulted,” said Angela Smith, 57. “I was furious.”
She claims the school may have been trying to protect the youth on the basketball team, which finished 7-17 that year, according to records.
“I think they were more concerned about the school winning. That’s why they covered it up,” she said.
At around 2:30pm on April 5, 2019, Mr Smith was jumped outside the school by a group of young people, including his opponent. He was taken to NYU Langone Hospital after “several unidentified suspects” struck him in the back of the head with an unknown object, according to a school report.
A Department of Education report said an “unknown male” approached him and asked if he was “Brad,” referring to a gang.
According to a report compiled by school safety officials, Smith was leaving school when he was “jumped” by an unknown person and hit him on the left side of his head with a pipe. He was also stabbed in the shoulder.
“I only remember being hit in the head multiple times until I found an opening in the crowd. And I ran into the school building,” he said in a deposition.
Inside the school, he found five school safety officers chatting.
“I was calling for help and they were trying to tell me to go back outside, to leave,” Smith recalled. “At that point I was covered in blood. They basically told me it was already a termination…and they didn’t want me to report everything.”
Smith took an ambulance to the hospital, where he spoke with police officers. It is unclear whether police have charged anyone.
Mr Smith suffered a fractured skull and had to have six staples inserted into his head to close the wound. He also required stitches from a stab wound to his shoulder.
Immediately after the attack, his mother requested a transfer. Smith spent his junior high and high school years at the Environmental Studies High School at West 56th Street and his 10th Avenue.
He is currently a freshman at Medgar Evers College and hopes to pursue a career in finance. He still needs time to complete his coursework and has problems in crowded places.
“He gets depressed. He walks with a cane sometimes, but he’s very protective of himself,” Angela said.
“The school should have done its best to stop the bullying. The parents should have met. That could have played a big role in preventing it.”