When a Queens first-grader refused to join their public school fight club, a group of “twisted sisters” who were supposed to be tutoring her made the little girl pay.
The mother of 7-year-old Taniya Jules claims in court papers that her daughter was pounded by a pack of eighth-graders for refusing to battle a classmate — and then dragged by the hair down the hallway of her school and slammed into the walls.
Taniya’s mom, Latoya Gore, is furious.
“I want to know why the children weren’t supervised and I want the eighth-graders disciplined,” Gore told the Daily News on Wednesday.
Gore said her daughter was so traumatized and so terrified of retaliation, “she didn’t tell me anything, just her head was hurting.”
“She still won’t tell it all because she’s still shook up by the situation,” she said.
Two other first-grade girls and a boy were also victimized, Gore said, by a fearsome foursome that was supposed to be tutoring the kids as part of a program at Public School 111/Jacob Blackwell School called “Each One, Teach One.”
The brutality, which was caught on videotape, happened during school hours around 11 a.m. March 10 — while Taniya’s teachers and classroom aides were AWOL, Gore charged.
The first hint she got that something happened to Taniya was when the school nurse called and told her she had been running and hit her head on a table, Gore said.
It wasn’t until they next day at the bus stop when she learned about the fight club from another parent.
“I went right into the school to find out what really happened,” Gore said. “I asked for the video and they only showed me a little clip.”
Gore said the Department of Education still won’t surrender the entire 30-minute surveillance tape showing the incident. So she filed a notice of claim Wednesday, informing the department and city of her intent to sue for $5.5 million.
“It is despicable that the school authorities attempted to cover up this incident by lying to Ms. Gore as to how her daughter was truly hurt,” Gore’s lawyer, Scott Rynecki, said. “There was a clear lack of supervision so as to allow these first-grade children to be assaulted in a fight club type of atmosphere.”
Rynecki said the four terrifying tutors have been identified and the school has already started conducting suspension hearings. One has “pleaded no contest” and the hearing of another was rescheduled because her parents didn’t show up, the lawyer said.
“They were like big sisters helping them with tutoring, but on this day they were unsupervised and turned into twisted sisters,” said attorney Pamela S. Roth, who is representing 6-year-old victim Khamani Moore.
Quoting from a Department of Education incident report, Roth said the accused eighth-graders claimed “they were playing, but video evidence shows they harassed and coerced the first-graders to fight.”
Another victim Roth is representing, Heaven Morris, 6, was ordered to “hit” classmate Sevin Carter and “slam him to the ground.” Sevin is also 6, the lawyer said. Heaven refused the girls’ order.
Notices of claim against the city were filed last week on behalf of Heaven and Khamani — each seeking $2 million.
Roth said during previous tutoring sessions, the eighth-graders would meet the younger kids in the school cafeteria and march them to a nearby classroom where a teacher or a paraprofessional would supervise.
“Nobody was supervising them this day,” Roth said.
Heaven’s mom said that is unacceptable.
“I sent her to school thinking she’s going to be safe and it bothers me that I was not there to protect her and neither were the teachers and the school personnel,” Tisha Morris, 39, said.
Khamani’s dad said seeing his little girl being beaten up was devastating.
“Why should we fear sending our kids to learn?” Mulazim Woods, 33, asked.
Education Department spokesman Jason Fink insisted “the safety of our students is our first priority.”
“What was depicted in that video is completely unacceptable,” he said. The department “has referred this matter to the special commissioner of investigation. The teachers who were responsible for these students have been removed from the classroom pending the investigation.”
School Principal Dionne Jaggon did not respond to calls for comment.
Word of the fight club beatings spread like wildfire among PS 111 parents and many were outraged.
“Where was their supervision?” asked Linda Joseph, 25, who was picking up her 4-year-old preschooler son. “Why are eight-graders tutoring first-graders? Where were the adults?”
Joi Foy, whose son is a fifth-grader, said Jaggon has lost control of the school.
“She’s never around. You never see her,” said Foy, 29.
The older kids, Foy added, are “too wild.”
“You see them walk by and they’re all cursing,” she said. “They shouldn’t be in school with the little ones.”
A mother who arrived at the school to pick up her three sons said Jaggon finally told parents about the incident Wednesday morning.
“She said that they were in the hallway and that it was a fight,” said the mom, who declined to give her name. “She said she felt sad that happened. She said she feels embarrassed about what happened. She said that no eighth-graders should be with little kids.”
The Long Island City school is one of the most dangerous in the city, according to statistics from city and state Education Departments.
PS 111 reported a whopping 75 violent or disruptive incidents involving students in the 2013-14 instructional year to the state Education Department — including 23 assaults that resulted in physical injury.
That shameful track record landed PS 111 on the state’s infamous list of “persistently dangerous schools” last year, joining another 39 city schools that reported high numbers of serious disciplinary problems.
Fifty-seven percent of PS 111 teachers said the school had a problem with student bullying on a city Education Department survey for the 2013-14 instructional year, nearly three times the city average of 22%.
PS 111 has also struggled with academics.
Just 4.8% of third graders and 6.7% of eighth graders passed state math exams in 2014. The citywide average for all grades passing those exams was 38%.
Also, just 7.1% of the school’s third graders and 9.7% of eighth graders passed state reading exams in 2014. The citywide average for all grades passing those exams was 29%.
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With Caitlin Nolan
