By Solomon O. Smith
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES — A distraught mother and her legal team have announced a $10 million lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District Dec. 16, alleging that her son was the target of bullying because of his race.
The student, identified in the suit simply as CS DOE is a 14-year-old ninth grade African-American student at Verdugo Hills High School, according to statement the plaintiff’s attorneys shared with California Black Media.
“Almost from the first day of class (in August 2024), CS DOE was targeted by Latino students who called him racial slurs, physically attacked him and threatened to stab him,” the statement said.
The family’s identity has not yet been released to the public due to safety concerns, according to their attorneys Bradley C. Gage and Caree Harper. The student’s mother is identified only as AO in the complaint.
A video filmed in August showed several non-Black students punching and kicking a Black student in a bathroom on campus while yelling racial slurs. The mother claims that the students who attacked her son were not punished, and the administration asked her to move her son to another school for his safety.
“They wanted him to leave the school without giving any disciplinary action towards those students,” said the student’s mother. “He’s not going anywhere. He’s going to finish. I wanted him to at least stay until the December winter break, and then I was going to transfer schools for him.”
Before she could enroll her son in a different school the attacks escalated.
In December, a second altercation, on a video shared with news media, showed four to six boys attacking a Black student and using racial slurs. The video also shows a person in a safety vest trying to stop the fight and telling them to “handle it after school.” Then, the video ends.
CS DOE, a 14-year-old freshman, left the school but was followed by a car, according to Gage. Several individuals exited the vehicle, one with a “large butcher knife.” A fight ensued and two people were stabbed. The Black student was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon but was later released into his mother’s custody.
The LAUSD and principal of Verdugo Hills High School did not respond to requests for comment.
Verdugo Hills High is located in the Tujunga area of Los Angeles in the eastern part of the San Fernando Valley. The school has an enrollment of nearly 1,200 students of which 64% are Latino and 28.5% are white, according to figures from he California Department of Education. Only 1.5% of the students in campus are Black.
Harper, who is handling the criminal charges, expressed frustration with the school and the District Attorney’s office. She criticized newly elected Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hoffman, for charging a 14-year-old for “defending his life” while reconsidering the resentencing of Eric and Lyle Menendez, brothers who were convicted of murdering their parents in the 1980s.
The high school freshmen is scheduled to appear in juvenile court on Feb. 1, but Harper says she will reach out to the district attorney and make the case against charging the young man.
“His mama had to go find him because he was hiding and fleeing for his very life,” Harper said. “So, we want to have a conversation with the new district attorney, who will hopefully see it as Bradley and I see it: this was a man who was defending his life against certain death.”
According to the boy’s mother, the young student is still traumatized and has not been able to return to the area because it remains unsafe. Racial slurs have also been spray painted on their home.
The victim’s mother says that it has been difficult being separated and that her son has been scarred by the incident.
“I’m sad. I’m devastated, you know,” said the mother. “I still feel like they’re after him. I still feel like they can kill him, possibly.”
Solomon O. Smith is a reporter for California Black Media.
