A Hammond mother claims in a federal lawsuit that the school district is blocking her children from going to school after they complained about a bully.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Karla Garcia in Lake County but was transferred Monday to U.S. District Court in Hammond.
According to the lawsuit, two of Garcia’s children, identified only as H.C. and B.L., attend Edison Elementary School in Hammond.
Garcia filed a protection order against Daniel Cervantes last year. His child attends the same school and grade as B.L. According to the lawsuit, Cervantes’ child has bullied B.L. in the past, and his wife also voiced threats against Garcia’s children, so when Garcia found out the two would be in the same classroom this year, she asked the School City of Hammond to transfer Cervantes’ child.
The child’s parents agreed to transfer the child to another school in the district, but Garcia says in the lawsuit that Edison Principal Lela Simmons and Hammond Superintendent Walter Watkins still will not allow her two children to attend school.
The lawsuit does not say why the district will not allow Garcia’s children to attend but notes that “they are no longer in danger” from Cervantes’ child.
The suit says the children have not been allowed back at Edison since Aug. 21.
Attorneys for both sides declined to comment on the case.
Garcia now has to pay for her children to attend private school, the lawsuit says, so that she does not get in trouble with the Department of Child Services and truant officers.
She’s asking that a judge order the school district, Simmons and Watkins to allow her children to attend Edison, for them to pay for the costs her family has incurred and that her children be provided with compensatory education.