The school district suspended Uppal for a week, the Post said.
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A NY family has filed a $50 million federal civil rights lawsuit against their son’s school district, alleging authorities forced the disabled Muslim student to wrongly admit he is affiliated with ISIS.
School authorities have not confirmed whether or not any staff members witnessed the bullying, and a spokesperson for the East Islip Union Free School District told Fusion that the school district would not comment on current litigation.
The family of Nashwan Uppal, a 12-year-old special needs student originally from Pakistan, is suing the East Islip School District, reports CBSNew York.
Uppal, who has severe learning and social disabilities, tried to shift to another table but the bullies would not let him go and kept at their jibes even after he moved.
The day after the incident, the preteen was pulled from gym class by Superintendent John Dolan, Principal Mark Bernard and Assistant Principal Jason Stanton.
“Stanton repeatedly asked Nashwan if he was a terrorist, and if he made bombs in his house”, the suit says.
Due to Nashwan’s learning disability, he did not understand the situation clearly and eventually responded that he would blow up the fence outside the school.
The local police then escorted Uppal and his mother, who came to the school after the phone call, to search their entire house.
Throughout this process, they allegedly refused to allow Uppal to contact his mother, Ubaisha Amar, or to answer her numerous calls and text messages-she was waiting to pick him up right outside the school.
“It’s not like he was the new kid in school that all of a sudden nobody knew who he was”, said David Antwork, the family’s attorney, according to CBS.
“The defendants trampled on…”
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The lawsuit also claims that Uppal suffered from “severe and extreme emotional distress” including “nightmares, sleeplessness, crying, fear, humiliation and stress” as a result of the incident.
