Bullied Special Needs 8-Year-Old Had To Have Testicle Removed, Lawsuit Says

A bullied special needs student in California allegedly had to have one of his testicles removed after he was sexually abused at Miramonte Elementary School, the boy’s mother said Monday.

The South Los Angeles school has been mired in scandal since 2012, when 75 staff members were removed after allegations of child abuse.

Josefina Corona says her 8-year-old son was sexually abused inside the school from April 2012 to June 2013 and no one responded to his cries for help.

"He would constantly get slapped, kicked," she told NBC Los Angeles. "And nobody would do nothing about the situation."

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She said her son would hide from bullies in the bathroom, but they got to him there, too.

"He was sexually assaulted in the bathroom inside the school," Corona said.

In another incident, a student pulled down his pants and "his testicles were squished." In June 2013, a urologist at Children’s Hospital LA had to remove one of the testicles.

"It went to the extreme, and kept getting swollen and wouldn't improve," Corona said.

She filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Unified School District claiming her son was physically, verbally and sexually abused by his fellow students. The complaint also says a school security officer harassed her son while he hid in the bathroom.

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"He went into the restroom, got on top of the toilet, pulled him out, bruised him, took pictures of him," she said.

"What do I have to wait for?" she asked. "For him to actually get raped in order for the district to hear me or the school to hear me?"

The lawsuit was filed just a week after the school’s principal claimed there was progress on the campus since the 2012 fallout.

In April 2012, the LAUSD pulled all teachers from the school and replaced them with temporary staff after the arrest of former teacher Mark Berndt, who pleaded no contest after photos surfaced of him feeding semen-laced cookies to elementary school students.

"Kids are still getting hurt in there," Corona said. "And the district is closing their eyes or shutting the door."

John Manley, an attorney representing alleged child abuse victims from Miramonte, said Friday that the LAUSD covered up records relating to the crimes.

"These reports identify many child molesters who were LAUSD employees," Manley told NBC Los Angeles. "The District has simply concealed them including those related to Mark Berndt. The victims and the public deserve the truth about LAUSD's cover up of child molesters. We will be addressing this very serious matter with the court next week."

Sources: NBC Los Angeles (2)

Image credit: Flickr Creative Commons / Christopher Webb, OnCentral/Jose Martinez

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