By Jesse Lent
Special to DNAinfo
BROOKLYN — A middle school student brutally beaten by bullies at his Bergen Beach school, leaving him blind in one eye, has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against the city for failing to protect the teen.
Kardin Ulysse, 14, an eighth-grader at Roy H. Mann Junior High School, was allegedly assaulted by two boys hurling anti-gay slurs at the teen on June 5, leaving him with severe eye injuries that may require a transplant.
The two seventh-graders repeatedly punched Ulysse in the school cafeteria about 8 a.m. while shouting the insults — reportedly calling him "gay" and a "transvestite" — according to the $16 million lawsuit filed by the boy's father against the Department of Education.
The lawsuit charges that the DOE and school officials were "negligent in the hiring and training of inept and incompetent teachers, school aides, school safety officers and other school personnel, who failed to protect the children."
DOE spokeswoman Marge Feinberg claims school officials did everything they could to respond quickly to the alleged attack.
"This was taken very seriously," Feinberg stated in an email. "The principal reported it and police were called. Two students were arrested and the victim was taken to the hospital, accompanied by his father, whom the school called."
The two boys arrested for the alleged attack also face disciplinary charges and the matter is still under investigation, she added.
But family's lawyer, Sanford Rubenstein said the response was not enough, and wants to raise awareness through the lawsuit to "negligent supervision resulting in [Ulysse] being bullied and assaulted, causing him to lose sight in his left eye."
When asked why one of his attackers used the anti-gay slurs, Ulysse told the Daily News, "I think he said that to hurt me and because he’s a bad person.”
