Teen blinded in one eye after gaybashing at Brooklyn school

BY NATASHA BARSOTTI – “Faggot,” “pussy,” “transvestite” and “gay” were among the slurs used during an attack on a Brooklyn teenager in his school’s cafeteria on June 5. The gaybashing left Kardin Ulysse blind in one eye, the New York Daily News reports.

Ulysse’s attackers are reportedly a couple of seventh-graders who were charged in family court with misdemeanours because they are minors. Ulysse, 14, and his family plan to sue the city for $16 million for failing to supervise students adequately. The family’s lawyer is calling on authorities to investigate whether the assault was a hate crime and to upgrade the charges to felonies, the report states.

The Daily News, referring to a Department of Education (DOE) report, says Ulysse’s arms were pinned by one of his attackers while another “rained” blows on Ulysse’s face, head and neck before school safety officers intervened. Ulysse has since undergone two surgeries on his right eye.

This is not the first time Ulysse has been attacked. He had reported being bullied previously to a dean at his school, Roy H Mann Junior High, which is located in the Bergen Beach neighbourhood of Brooklyn.

The news report notes that a DOE survey indicated that 40 percent of Roy H Mann students don’t feel safe at school, while 44 percent said students threaten or bully fellow students frequently.

Landing image source: buzzbox.com

Natasha Barsotti is originally from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean. She had high aspirations of representing her country in Olympic Games sprint events, but after a while the firing of the starting gun proved too much for her nerves. So she went off to university instead. Her first professional love has always been journalism. After pursuing a Master of Journalism at UBC , she began freelancing at Xtra West — now Xtra Vancouver — in 2006, becoming a full-time reporter there in 2008.

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