The father of a gender non-conforming student filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Los Angeles Unified School District on behalf of his son, alleging the boy was called homophobic names and physically assaulted at school multiple times a day because of his gender and sexual orientation.
The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court. The allegations include gender and sexual orientation discrimination, harassment, negligence, assault and battery, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligent supervision of a child.
Other defendants in the suit include Portola Middle School principal Stephanie McClay and one of the boy’s fellow students.
The suit seeks unspecified damages. An LAUSD spokeswoman did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
A gender non-conforming person is someone who does not abide by stereotypes of how the individual should act or look based on the gender they had at birth.
According to the complaint, the boy, now 12, first suffered bullying from other students at Pomelo Community Charter School in West Hills. The treatment was documented in a 2012 Educational Equity Compliance Office report, the suit states.
The LAUSD was aware of the contents of the report, the suit states. Thee boy’s parents met with district officials to tell them about their son’s gender and sexual orientation and inform them of the abuses, the suit further states.
The parents were told that if the boy would be protected if he enrolled at Portola Middle School in Tarzana, according to the lawsuit. Based on the assertions, the father and mother transferred their son to Portola School in 2014 and he was put in the gifted student magnet program, the suit states.
However, the boy was subjected to slurs and assaults almost immediately after starting classes at Portola School, the suit alleges.
“The plaintiff was tripped, shoved and otherwise physically assaulted on a daily basis,” the suit states. “On some particularly violent days, the plaintiff was assaulted and battered multiple times per day.”
The boy and his parents repeatedly reported the incidents to school officials, the suit states.
The fellow student named in the lawsuit harassed the plaintiff, called him homophobic names and once pushed the plaintiff’s head against a locker, the suit states.
In October 2014, after the boy was injured when a stationary bicycle fell on one knee, school officials told him to sit outside the gym during physical education class until his recovery was complete, the suit states.
The suit alleges the LAUSD was negligent for failing to protect the boy and for not properly monitoring the conduct of the student who allegedly harassed him. The district also failed to report the alleged abuses as required by mandatory reporting laws, the suit states.
