A Long Island school did nothing, while a former “tormented” teacher of second degree of special needs with abuse that included launching textbooks in his heads, according to the new legal presentation and the anguished parents.
The former Cornwall school teacher, John O’Dwyer, supposedly burned an earthly child, dragged him through the classroom and even locked him in a dark closet while shouting for help, said a claim notice of $ 20 million filed on Tuesday.
The claim, a precursor of a civil lawsuit against a municipal agency, alleges that the school not only “could not avoid” O’Dwyer’s behavior, but also informed them of abuse and “still did nothing about it.”
In the first of a series of claims that will be presented against the Free School District of the West Hempstead Union and the Cornwell School, a family said O’Dwyer highlighted his son “for humiliating abuse” and subjected him to a physical torment and hitting. “
“Abuse, both physical and psychological, inflicted on these special needs in second degree at Cornwell Avenue Elementary is the worst nightmare of all parents,” said Nathan Werksman, partner of Merson Law, PLLC. “Through thesis cases, we will discover the complete truth of what happened, and we will expose how the Free School District of the West Hempstead union allowed this cruelty for so long.”
O’Dwyer did not immediately respond to a message that remained in a number associated with him.
The mother who presented the claim notice said that her special needs son told her that the alleged abuse regularly occurred in the 2023-2024 school year. Routinely he was retained at the end of the school day to be released the last after the other students left, the mother said.
“When the teacher would be alone in the room with him, he dragged him hand in hand and put it in a dark closet,” the mother recalled, who asked to remain anonymous.
“My son was screaming, hitting and kicking the door,” he told the post in an exclusive interview. “Hey, he kept telling us:” I don’t want to be alone with the teacher, I don’t want to be alone with the teacher, “and we didn’t.”
The school said he was carrying badly, and the teacher blamed his medicine, according to the mother.
“If I only knew what Mean knew,” he added. “I was simply afraid of being alone, because I knew what would happen.”
But, according to the movie, the school knew it all the time.
An assistant teacher was “present for much of the abuse” and the school “ignored complaints about O’Dwyer’s behavior,” according to the claim.
The family only discovered abuse after another father this year told them that the school sent a letter to all the current families, he told them that O’Dwyer had fired and that there was an active investigation.
“My home never received that letter because my son no longer attends school,” said the father.
News12 reported for the first time about the anguish letter in March.
A message that is left with the school in search of comments and confirmation was not returned immediately.
Nassau’s police confirmed that the school had called the authorities and there was a complaint in the archive.
Meanwhile, the allegedly abused child’s father said he has heard that the experience was not unique, and now several other families are also planning legal actions.
“We recognized that this is much more here,” he said.
Another of those victims is the daughter of a police officer in New York with 20 years at work.
He said that the school district was a “misfortune … as a human being, it is really discouraging.”
The policeman, who is also asked for anonymity, said that O’Dwyer would take a textbook: “As a heavy textbook and old school”, and launch it or leave it in the heads of the students.
She is afraid that trauma can affect her daughter’s interest in learning, and that she is “scared to learn and participate in school, because, again, if you got something, the teacher would come and hit you on top of the head.”
“It is really unpleasant for the school to sweep this under the back,” he told the post.
