Sanford Rubenstein representing Diane John, whose son Kristoff was seen on video
By Ben Chapman / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
The Brooklyn mom whose scrawny teenage son was pummeled by a public school dean is seeking criminal charges against the thuggish bully — and she’s suing the city for $5.5 million.
“I’m doing this so that something is going to be done, so that it will never happen again to another parent,” said Diane John, who learned of her son Kristoff’s March 6 beatdown at George Westinghouse Career and Technical Education High School when the Daily News this week showed her a video of the incident.
“You send your kids to school to learn,” she said. “It’s supposed to be a safe place and for this to happen is shameful and disgusting.”
Prominent attorney Sanford Rubenstein filed a blistering claim against the city Thursday naming the Education Department and Hudson as defendants.
“Stephan Hudson negligently, violently and viciously grabbed (Kristoff) by his arm, hand and neck, and dragged him across the floor and pushed him numerous times into a table,” the claim reads.
The claim also contends that school officials including principal Janine Kieran “attempted to conceal and cover up the truth” by lying to John about the incident and preventing her from seeing video of the beating.
Rubenstein is also seeking criminal charges against Hudson on behalf of Kristoff and his mother.
Kristoff’s anguished mother said she hasn’t slept through the night since she viewed the shocking video obtained by The News — and she wishes none of this ever happened.
“I have so much pain in my heart for my son. No parent should go through this,” said John, a childcare worker who brought Kristoff from her native Grenada in 2011 so the boy could go to high school in the city.
The thumping her son received during his freshman year at Westinghouse drove him back to his family’s home country in April — and turned him against school, she said.
The claim alleges that 15-year-old Kristoff — who, at just 116 pounds, weighs less than half as much as Hudson — suffered “serious and permanent” injuries to his back and neck as a result of the beating.
At the time, Hudson told John that is was the boy who attacked him — not the other way around. When John asked for a look at the school surveillance video her son told her must exist, school officials blew her off, she said.
“They covered it up and blamed my son — and I believed them,” said John. “They should be ashamed of themselves.”
Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott was “disturbed” by the video, which shows Hudson thumping Kristoff, and will seek the teacher’s firing, a department spokeswoman said.
Rubenstein, who is also representing a Brooklyn student who was blinded in a June cafeteria beatdown in a separate, $16 million suit against the city, said that safety in the public schools is a “problem.”
“Parents are concerned and this occasion gives parents more reason to be concerned,” said Rubenstein.
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