Boy With Autism Was Bullied To Repeat Racial Slurs, Bergen County Lawsuit Says

BERGEN COUNTY, NJ — The mother of a Bergen County student who is on the autism spectrum is suing his school district because nothing was done about bullying, she says — including an incident in which she caught students telling her son to say a racial slur, so kids could record it.

The mom says the students in her son's middle school would frequently try to push him to commit offensive acts that could get him in trouble, including kissing girls in school, according to the suit, filed in Bergen County Superior Court on June 23.

The suit says the student, who attends middle school in Lyndhurst, has autism spectrum disorder, Chron's disease, ADHD, "mild intellectual disability," and delays in his speech and language.

The story says that on May 22, 2022, the mom saw her son talking to other kids on FaceTime, and they were trying to convince him to repeat a racial slur that starts with N. She told her son to hang up, she says. After he did, the boy told his mother kids had been calling him that word at school, and that someone told him it just meant "Hi."

Both she and her son reported all of the acts to the boy's guidance counselor, school officials, and ultimately, the school board, she says.

The suit says that the guidance counselor knew who the kids were, but that nothing was done.

The suit, which names Superintendent Joseph deCorso, as well as the school's principal, the district, and the Board of Education, says that the district didn't follow their own anti-bullying and harassment policies.

The suit says that the mother filed three Harassment, Intimidating, and Bullying complaints in spring 2022, saying her son was being targeted for bullying "because of his disabilities and/or perceived disabilities."

But the mom received a letter from the district on Sept. 29, 2022 saying the complaints were "not substantiated," according to the suit.

The suit says that even after the incidents were reported, they continued to occur, including in fall of this past year, in which a student called the boy a slur. But the boy told his mother he knew not to repeat it because "The N-Word is bad."

The suit says that besides students trying to encourage her son to kiss various girls at school, they have actually touched him.

"In or about October 2022, there continued to be multiple incidents in which students inappropriately touched and/or made suggestive comments to [the student] for the purpose of harassing, intimidating, and/or bullying him due to his disabilities," the suit says.

The suit says the boy was often "confused" and "humiliated" by the comments, which came from students who were not his friends.

On Tuesday, Superintendent deCorso told Patch, "This is a private student matter currently in litigation. Therefore I am unable to comment at this time."

The school board president and vice president did not respond to a request for comment.