Yonkers, NY: A 13-year-old Montessori student was brutally assaulted and mobbed by schoolmates and their parents at a Montessori High School in Yonkers.
A group of parents allegedly mobbed a 13-year-old Montessori student as they cheered on a classmate who was beating the adolescent; the horrifying incident was captured on video last week outside the Yonkers school, according to legal documents.
Alenna Merritt, the mother of the adolescent, has withdrawn her daughter from Yonkers Montessori Academy and formally notified the city of Yonkers via legal notice of claim that she intends to initiate a $40 million lawsuit regarding the alleged negligent supervision.
At 7:20 a.m. on April 18, four parents and a grandparent of another student swarmed Merritt’s daughter, E.W., on the baseball field on school grounds at the pre-K-12 Montessori, according to the mother, the claim, and video footage from three phones. Four parents and a grandparent of other students were responsible for the assault, which the family has requested remain anonymous.
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Mark Shirian, the family’s attorney, stated that the video suggested the group was searching for E.W.’s companion; since the friend was not present, they assumed E.W. was guilty by association and pursued him instead.
The footage captures the parents screaming and cursing at E.W. before another student rushes her and begins tossing and pummeling her as the parents watch and E.W. slaps back in an attempt to defend herself.
Thursday, the city of Yonkers received a notice of claim alleging that E.W. was “violently assaulted on the premises of Yonkers Montessori Academy by students, parents, and relatives of current students, while school hours were in effect.” E.W. was “left unsupervised.”
The document, which serves as the legal precursor to initiating a litigation against a municipal agency, states that the adolescent has suffered intense physical, emotional, and psychological harm due to the violent assault and beating.
Merritt, 42, of Yonkers, confirmed to The Post that she is additionally filing charges against the adult perpetrators.
She claimed that the police, who were dispatched to the school that day, were able to determine that some of the adults who assaulted her daughter did so via cell phone recordings and have since issued an arrest warrant for at least one of them after reviewing the footage.
The most recent notice of claim accuses Yonkers, the Yonkers Board of Education, and Yonkers Montessori Academy of negligent supervision, hiring, and infliction of emotional distress, among other related offenses.
Reference: The New York Post