By Connor Adams Sheets
New York City last Thursdaysettled a $55,000 federal lawsuit filed by a Flushing high school student allegedly injured by a school-safety agent on Sept. 19, 2008.
Stephen Cruz, who was then a 12th grader at Robert F. Kennedy High School, had his forehead lacerated when an unprovoked school-safety agent employed by the NYPD allegedly kicked open the door to a restroom stall Cruz was using. The door struck his face, cutting him below the hairline, and the agent allegedly left without offering help to the bleeding student.
The Cruz family sued the city Nov. 20, 2008, and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint against the agent with the city Police Departments’ Internal Affairs Bureau on the student’s behalf.
“We believe the settlement was in the best interest of all parties,” city Department of Education spokeswoman Connie Pankratz said via e-mail Monday.
But there are calls on the City Council to take further steps to ensure such incidents are handled properly.
“The settlement does not change the fact that Stephen was recklessly and pointlessly assaulted at school by an adult assigned to protect him,” said Jeffrey A. Rothman, the family’s attorney, in a statement. “The City Council must take action to ensure other students don’t experience similar abuse.”
The Council is currently considering legislation designed to avoid such incidents in the future by providing increased transparency of police activity in public schools.
According to the NYCLU, the school’s principal had no authority to discipline the agent or investigate the incident beyond submitting a report to the DOE.
The legislation, called the Student Safety Act, would address the lack of oversight the DOE has over school safety issues, since they were transferred to the NYPD in 1998.
Co-sponsored by 33 Council members, the act would require the NYPD and DOE to report to the Council on a quarterly basis on a wide range of school safety issues.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
