A disturbing classroom incident in Indianapolis has resulted in a lawsuit following the emergence of a video depicting an elementary school teacher encouraging students to participate in physical violence resembling a “fight club,” as reported by FOX 59.
On Tuesday, Corrie Horan, the mother of the seven-year-old victim, filed the lawsuit in Marion Superior Court.
The lawsuit includes Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS) as one of the defendants, along with the school’s principal, vice principal, superintendent, school board, and teacher Julious Johnican who is accused of facilitating the violent disciplinary method described in the lawsuit.
The lawsuit revolves around a disturbing video that depicts one student being assaulted by another, with teacher Julious Johnican reportedly goading on the violence.
The video depicts a boy on the ground being struck repeatedly in the head and face, with his head forcefully pushed against the floor, while he cries out. The teacher is heard encouraging the aggressor, who responds, “That’s right… you get him.”
The incident occurred at George Washington Carver School in Indianapolis, where Horan’s son, described as a special needs student with “disabilities, including sensory sensitivities, an executive function disorder, and probable learning disabilities,” faced ongoing bullying and assault. This entire mess was orchestrated by Johnican.
Horan discovered the abuse after Johnican accidentally showed her footage of her son’s beating during a parent-teacher conference.
Horan’s lawsuit alleges that Johnican operated a “fight club,” actively encouraging and enabling students to participate in violence against her son, identified as “O.D.” in the legal filing, over a period of three months.
The lawsuit provides specifics on at least three occasions when O.D. was physically assaulted and subjected to various forms of harm and bullying while in the classroom.
As reported by FOX 59:
The mother said the school didn’t follow up about an investigation or provide additional information. The parent tried to schedule a meeting about the incident, but she was “repeatedly informed that it was her child who was disruptive, lying and that this was a sign of a disordered personality in the child and related to his ADHD,” according to the lawsuit.
The boy also told his mother that he heard a substitute teacher say that “special needs students were demonically possessed.” The same substitute teacher, according to the DCS investigation, appeared to support the fight, telling an administrator, “[They’re] bad kids, that’s what you do!” when asked about the September incident.
The boy said staff told him he “was bad and ‘needed to be baptized’ and that ‘holy water needed to be poured on him’ to cure him of his evil,” according to the lawsuit.
The boy’s grades dropped precipitously. He pleaded with his mother not to send him to school. And as the days and weeks passed, and he told his mother he was being attacked and that his teacher had apparently supported it, the school met his accounts with skepticism.
Then the video surfaced during the Nov. 1 parent-teacher conference, spurring an investigation from the Indiana Department of Child Services.
The DCS investigation validated the boy’s claims, saying they were substantiated “due to the preponderance of evidence” surrounding the case. Johnican had “knowingly and willingly engaged in behaviors toward the victims that jeopardized their overall well-being while in his care as a teacher at IPS 87,” according to the DCS report.
The incident has been reported to the Indiana Department of Child Services. IPS confirmed that Johnican has been removed from the classroom, suspended, and is no longer in contact with students or employed by IPS.
WATCH:
Share your thoughts by scrolling down to leave a comment.
