Child Caught Between Bullies and Bureaucracy

December 18, 2008

The NY Daily News'  Patrice O'Shaughnessy tells the story of a Legal Services NYC-Bronx client,  10-year old Jose Perez, whose mother is fighting to have him transferred out of a school where he's been targeted by bullies.

Jose is in seventh grade, but learns at a second-grade level. One of his composition books – half-filled with a young child's blocky print handwriting, as well as a careful drawing of the human heart – is torn up and marred with a pen. The damage done, he said, by kids in his special-ed class who constantly pick on him.

He's a big kid, but seems very passive; the kind you can push around. He has suffered from pigeon toes on both feet, and though he has had surgery to correct one foot, it's still enough of a deviation to attract cruel kids' remarks.

Rivera said there are 12 children in Jose's mixed special-ed class at Public School 214 in West Farms, and some of them have made Jose their target.

"They punch him, hit him, trip him; they taunt him, saying he's stupid," she said.

Last year, Jose tried to stab himself with a pencil at school, his mother said, because he couldn't take it anymore.

Rivera said she has tried to get a safety transfer for her son. Such a transfer is granted if the student is the victim of a crime, or his continued presence in the school is unsafe for him.

But, she said, the principal at the school, David Cintron, will not meet with her or provide necessary documents.

"We see a lot of these types of cases in the Bronx," said Rivera's lawyer, Nelson Mar. "Parents are having difficulty, whether it's bullying or a safety issue.

"The principal decides if [the transfer request] is baseless or groundless. The fact that the Department of Education had to promulgate new rules on bullying, and the fact that this principal refuses to comply shows how difficult it is for parents to get a remedy."

Read the rest of Jose's story in the Jan. 16th NY Daily News article.

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