Prospect Heights Charter School Sued Over 40-Day Suspension

PROSPECT HEIGHTS, BROOKLYN — The mother of a Success Academy first-grader who was suspended for 70 days for his allegedly violent behavior is suing the Prospect Heights charter school for denying her son a public education, court records show.

The 8-year-old boy, identified in a civil complaint as “AG,” has been suspended more than 25 times for violent tantrums, during which he stabbed one teacher with a pencil and dragged another down the hallway by her hair, according to a complaint filed in Brooklyn federal court in November.

The family argues that because the school refused to hold a hearing for the child, who suffers from physical and learning disabilities, Success Academy illegally denied him his right to an education, court records show.

AG’s first sizable suspension came in February 2016 when he hit an assistant principal while pulling her hair and dragging her down a hallway, court records show.

The boy was taken to Kings County Hospital — in an ambulance for which his mother would be charged $1,860 — and told not to return to school for 45 days, according to the complaint.

The 8-year-old was suspended again, this time for 20 days, in September 2017 when a Success Academy staffer complained he stabbed her in the eye with a pencil, but the suit disputes the woman's account.

The boy’s father reported he saw the aide — whom he said did not appear hurt — when he came to pick up his son the day of the alleged attack and, according to the complaint, the school did not provide the family with evidence of her injuries at a resultant hearing.

Success Academy spokeswoman Ann Powell told the Daily News, who originally reported on the suit, that the boy was suspended because he had injured students as well as teachers.

“This student has been involved in over two dozen violent incidents causing injuries to his classmates and his teachers, two of whom sought emergency medical treatment," Powell said to the Daily News.

Powell added that five paraprofessionals quit because of the boy's behavior.

The first-grader suffers from both learning disabilities and beta thalassemia — a serious blood disorder that causes him fatigue — which means he depends on the therapy and counseling he receives at Success Academy Prospect Heights, the suit maintains.

Photo of Success Academy Prospect Heights at 760 Prospect Place courtesy of GoogleMaps/Sept. 2017