A Westchester County family says their son was bullied because he is Jewish, Black and has special needs and the school in the Ardsley School District brushed it off.
The boy’s parents say their concerns were initially taken seriously but then were shut down after they filed a report with the state.
CBS News New York brought their concerns to the district superintendent.
The bullying accusations
Conor Dunn has autism. His parents say he could barely speak when he was younger, but thanks to the Ardsley school system he has advanced and even joined the middle school football team this year.
That high point, however, was soured on Oct. 27, when the 13-year-old says during recess one student told him to pick up animal feces, and another then told him to lick his hand.
Dunn said he followed their directions, “Because they maybe wanted to be friends with me.”
His parents say the next day a group of students stood up for Dunn in the locker room before a football game, attacking one of the alleged bullies.
“They were grabbing onto him and holding him on the wall. They were saying, ‘Say sorry now,'” Dunn said.
The teen’s mom, Beth Blank-Dunn, said she posted on social media, asking for witnesses of both incidents and said people came forward.
“The things people send me, screenshots of conversations, this kid J.D. referred to my son as an ‘n’ word,” Blank-Dunn said, “and they’ve also been teaching Conor inappropriate hand gestures and the German march with the arms.”
What the Dunn family claims happened next
The Dunns, however, say the school silenced those witnesses and stonewalled the family after they filed a bullying report with the state under the Dignity For All Students Act.
CBS News New York asked Superintendent Dr. Matthew Block about the report after a board meeting Tuesday night.
“I’m not going to … I can’t comment specifically on the report, but I will say any time a report is filed, we take it seriously,” Block said.
About a week later, the school in a letter to the Dunns said, “14 students and three staff members were interviewed” and “they were unable to confirm seeing or hearing anything being said or done by classmates.”
“They have more of a vested interest in how they’re perceived than making sure my son is safe,” father Jim Dunn said.
When told the family seems to feel the students that are bullying their son are not going to be disciplined, Block said, “We certainly don’t tolerate any bullying. Again, every student in our district has the right to feel safe and to thrive and we do everything we can do to create that atmosphere.”
Other parents make similar claims against the district
During Tuesday night’s meeting, the board adjourned before other parents who filled the library to speak could share their stories.
“We’re all horrified. We went through the same thing ourselves as the parent of a special needs child and we had to remove our child from this district here,” William Batista said, adding when asked if his child was bullied, “Over and over, more than once. They just completely shut the meeting down without acknowledging the issue and allowing the parent to speak.
The superintendent said the investigation is ongoing.
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