The parents of a disabled Straudsburg Junior High School student are suing the district for allegedly not protecting their son from bullying by other students.
Saida Morsingo and Simon Wagichu filed suit against the Straudsburg Area School District in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on Oct. 7, citing violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
According to the complaint, the student, identified as F.W., age 15, is a disabled African-American student at Straudsburg Junior High School, who suffers from the inability to read social cues and does not understand when someone is mean to him. F.W. was the victim of repeated bullying and an assault in December 2014 that was captured on video and posted on Facebook by a student, inviting cyber bullying, the complaint states. Despite an anti-bullying policy, F.W. was the only participant suspended for 10 days for the incident.
F.W.'s parents allege that the school district has failed to take any steps to correct the continued mistreatment of their son and that as a consequence he has been denied a free appropriate public education. They are seeking compensatory and punitive damages plus court costs. The plaintiffs are represented by Joseph Montgomery of Montgomery Law of Philadelphia.
U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania case number 3:15-cv-01947-UN2.