Dad speaks out after 14-year-old daughter attacked at Long Island high school
CENTRAL ISLIP, Suffolk County (WABC) -- A father on Long Island is suing his daughter's school for negligence for not protecting kids after she was attacked by a classmate.
Ezra Hoyte said he won't send his daughter back to Central Islip High School yet -- she's only 14 and in 9th grade and was thrown to the ground and beaten by a classmate nearly two weeks ago.
Video that is now part of the lawsuit they plan to file against the school district shows the teen get thrown down yet again in the hallway.
They say she suffered a concussion.
"Pain in her head and she's having a hard time breathing," Hoyte said. "Emotionally, she's like just distraught."
Suffolk County police say her attacker, who was also 14, is charged with third degree assault and released back to her mother.
But what the school hasn't said is what has become of the boy who clearly recorded himself egging her on.
The school district also would not comment on the pending litigation, but it does have a safety plan that is supposed to include hallway monitors.
"And if you look in the video, there's nobody nearby to help this young lady, who is being assaulted," attorney Kenneth Mollins said.
All of this has led up to the panic and fear of this week with even more school violence, both on the national scale and on Long island.
Four other students were stabbed in or around Long Island schools this week alone-- in Uniondale, then Lindenhurst and Riverhead.
The case in Central Islip is eerily reminiscent of another gut-wrenching case in New Jersey in which another 14-year-old, Adriana Kuch, was beaten, bullied and then took her own life.
Hoyte says he is now haunted by what he must avoid.
"In her case, she committed suicide, so I don't want my daughter to go to school, so potentially the same thing could happen," he said.
ALSO READ | 13-year-old student stabbed in leg during fight in hallway of Lindenhurst Middle School
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