Family sues N.Y. private school for expelling daughter, allegedly for standing up to bully
The family of a Palestinian-American Muslim girl is suing her prestigious private school for expelling her, allegedly because the girl defended herself against a bully.
The Dec. 3 lawsuit first reported on by the New York Post, alleges that a seventh-grade student at the Hewitt School, an all-girls school in New York City, was expelled after confronting the classmate who had threatened to kill her. The motive, says the family, was the girls nationality and religion.
According to the lawsuit, filed in New Yorks Supreme Court by attorney Stewart Lee Karlin, the girl a successful student who plays the violin at Carnegie Hall attended the Hewitt School for three years. When her father was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, she began acting out; however, counseling helped her contend with his illness.
One day in math class, a classmate allegedly threatened to kill the girl, in front of their teacher, according to a copy of the court document obtained by Yahoo Lifestyle. The document alleges that when the girl asked her teacher for help, she was told to just forget about it.
On April 16, 2018, after a period of the alleged abuse, the girl asked the bully during recess why she was intimidating her and if she truly wanted to fight. The two didnt fight each other; however, the school allegedly responded by expelling the girl who had been bullied (not the bully), which Karlin says is an egregious and disproportionate response to standing up to another student who had continually threatened her and made her feel unsafe.
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