The family of a fourth-grade boy in the suburbs of Chicago has sued another fourth grader and his family for $50,000 over allegations of extensive bullying.
The family is also suing the school principal and the school district, reports NBC Chicago.
The bullying allegedly occurred throughout the boys’ third-grade year at Robert Frost Elementary School in Mount Prospect, Ill.
The parents, Matthew and Deveri Del Core, filed their lawsuit on Tuesday in state court.
Their son is named Joaquin. The alleged bully is identified in the lawsuit by the initials “C.A.”
The lawsuit claims that “C.A” attacked Joaquin pretty much on a weekly basis. It says “C.A” punched and kicked Joaquin. “C.A.” also made death threats, the complaint says.
“There was everything from him choking my son and threatening to kill him, said he was going to go home and get a knife and come back and kill him,” the mother, Deveri Del Core, told NBC Chicago. “My son would wake up at night screaming and crying, terrified, and did not want to go to school.”
The parents say they met with school officials and filed several police reports.
Despite the fact that an investigator found that the bully had “anger issues,” the parents say, neither the school nor the cops prevented the constant attacks.
“‘Yes we’ll handle it, rest assured,'” school officials promised, according to Matthew Del Core, the dad. “And then it would happen again a week later!”
Joel Handler, the attorney representing the Del Core family, also spoke to NBC Chicago.
“He has committed multiple assaults, multiple batteries, on my client,” Handler told the station. “Since the school’s not going to address it, and the parent presumably are not going to address it, then we are going to have to address it.”
While The Daily Caller suspects that Handler would choose to collect any damages from the deep-pocketed school district, the attorney has promised to collect from the alleged bully — possibly by garnishing his wages starting in 2023 or so, when he begins earning money.
“That (potential) judgment is good for 20 years,” Handler told NBC Chicago. “As long as we know where he is, we would be enforcing the judgment against him.”
A school district spokeswoman declined to address the lawsuit directly, speaking only in general platitudes about bullying prevention.
Meanwhile, a few hours after the lawsuit was filed, Deveri Del Core was fired from her job in the Robert Frost Elementary cafeteria. The food services vendor, which fired her, said in a letter that the sacking was “at the request of the client,” presumably the school district.
Handler said he now plans to amend the complaint as a result, adding a claim of retaliatory discharge.
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