"The parents of a 17-year-old Indiana high school student say the constant bullying their son suffered due to his Middle Eastern ethnicity culminated in a beating that injured his brain, and are suing the school district for failing to intervene as his physical and verbal abuse escalated.
David Osama Haddad, a junior at Lake Central of Jordanian descent, was attacked in the hallway of his high school on Nov. 8 after repeated incidents of bullying he had reported to district officials, his parents allege in their lawsuit, according to NBC Chicago. Haddad suffered a traumatic brain injury and was treated at Community Hospital in Munster. Photos released by the family's attorney show his face severely bruised.
"The principal [Robert McDermott] turned a blind eye to the repeated bullying and harassment of this student," the Haddad family's attorney Kenneth Allen said in a press conference Monday. "The principal was notified on several occasions of the situation, but did nothing. Inaction by those in charge in the face of injustice cannot be tolerated."" (thanks Farah)
