LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The lawsuit names many staff members at Western High School, including the principal. The child is in a special needs class and the lawsuit says he's had to go to the hospital as a result of these assaults.
"I've never seen anything like this and my fear is that it happens every day," said Attorney Ken Henry.
Henry represents a 9th-grade boy named as J.A. in a lawsuit against JCPS. Henry says J.A.'s mother learned of the bullying in January, "Two weeks later, this student sexually assaulted J.A. by grabbing him by his private parts and that was reported to the high school teacher."
J.A. was in Western High Schools special needs class. He has cerebral palsy and epilepsy, among other debilitating conditions.
"March 18th, this kid tripped J.A. in the hallway and he fell, broke two of his front teeth out," said Henry.
Incident after incident. Henry says they were all reported to the teacher or an administrator. In one case, the boy allegedly threw a basketball at J.A. which induced a seizure and sent him to the hospital. Henry believes its policy to report bullying, "We don't believe that's happened, surely if someone up the chain of command not in this school saw these reports, something would have happened."
Henry is no stranger to education. He was a teacher, professor, coach, "I've been involved with the Kentucky Office of Education Accountability for 6 years, looking into situations like this and this is as bad as I've ever seen."
We reached out to JCPS who said they don't comment on pending litigation.
Last week, the defense moved to dismiss the civil case and send it to Federal Court. "Meaning we're going to delay the case for 2-3 years while you go through the appeal stuff with the school district," said Henry.
Henry says he will file a response to their motion to dismiss in the next couple of days.
J.A. has been transferred to a different high school. Henry says that it's imperative that anyone in this situation makes sure to report every instance, document it and if nothing changes, go up the chain of command.
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