A Long Island middle school failed to protect an Orthodox Jewish special-needs student from bullies’ vile anti-Semitic slurs and threats, a lawsuit claims.
The $10.5 million federal suit says staffers at Eagle Avenue Middle School in West Hempstead stood by as schoolmates abused Gedaliah Hoffman, calling him a “f–king Jew” for wearing a yarmulke.
Staffers caused “the bullying to become escalated by punishing only Gedaliah, although Gedaliah was the victim of the attacks,” says the lawsuit, filed last week by the boy and his mother, Lori Hoffman.
Representatives for the targeted parties — the Board of Cooperative Educational Services of Nassau County and the Hewlett Woodmere Union Free School District — declined to comment.