NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Civil rights advocates are suing the college board and sheriff’s workplace in Louisiana’s Jefferson Parish over the alleged mistreatment — together with the usage of a chokehold and handcuffs — on a 10-year-old Black pupil with disabilities.
The lawsuit, introduced Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana, says the kid’s disabilities embrace consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction and temper dysfunction. It says the kid often ate lunch in administrative workplaces to restrict his contact with different college students. It says that on Might 13, 2021, he was visibly distraught and indignant after having been bullied by one other pupil.
After being admonished, he started throwing issues and struck the college principal in her workplace earlier than strolling out, based on the lawsuit.
The go well with says as an alternative of looking for assist from counselors or particular schooling personnel, faculty officers dialed 911. A responding officer from the sheriff’s workplace put the Fifth-grader in a choke maintain and handcuffed him, based on the lawsuit.
The federal court docket go well with was filed in New Orleans on Monday on behalf of the kid’s mother and father by legal professionals with the ACLU Basis of Louisiana and the Tulane Legislation Clinic. It seeks unspecified damages for the incident at Congetta Trippe Janet Elementary College and a declaration that the defendants’ “insufficient and dangerous response to people with disabilities” violates the federal People with Disabilities Act.
Spokesmen for the college board and sheriff’s workplace declined touch upon the pending litigation.