The attack on the 13-year-old child was caught on video last week outside the school in Yonkers , New York City, according to legal papers.
The teenager’s mother, Alenna Merritt, has pulled her daughter out of the Yonkers Montessori Academy and filed a legal notice of claim alerting the city of Yonkers that she plans to sue for $40million over the alleged negligent supervision that she believes led to the attack.
“I felt confused and scared — they kept yelling in my face,” the teen told The New York Post during a phone interview with her, her mother and a lawyer.“When I got attacked, I was feeling alone and scared because nobody was there to help me.”
The teen, whose name is being withheld at the family’s request and will be referred to by her initials, E.W., was bombarded by four parents and a grandparent of other students on the baseball field on school grounds at 7.20am on April 18, according to the mother. They claim there is video footage from three different phones.
The family’s lawyer, Mark Shirian, said it seemed like the angry mob were searching for E.W.’s friend and because the friend wasn’t there, it was a case of guilt-by-association, and they went after E.W. instead.
According to the legal document, the teen “was viciously assaulted, beaten, and as a result has sustained severe physical, emotional, and psychological injuries."
Merritt, 42, said that she is pressing charges against the adults involved in the alleged assault too. She said that after reviewing cell phone videos with police officers who were called to the school that day, that the cops were able to see that some of the adults also attacked her daughter. A warrant for the arrest of at least one of the gang has been issued.
Merritt received a distressed call from her daughter at around 7.30am not long after sending her off to school on the bus, she was “horrified” that this could have happened to her child.
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“I had my child screaming on the phone, screaming that she was hit … and I couldn’t even fathom it,” said Merritt, an executive director at a daycare center in Yonkers.
The girl is now apparently receiving schooling remotely from a tutor in a program provided by the Yonkers Montessori Academy. With only 40 days of the school year, the mother said she wouldn’t dream of returning E.W. to the school, fearing for her safety after the brutal assault. E.W. has been accepted to a private all-girls catholic school for the next school year after the attack.
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