Family sues CUSD over suspension of fourth grader for alleged threats

The family of a fourth-grader suspended last year for an alleged threat made during a game of cops and robbers is suing Cabrillo Unified School District, the Sheriff’s Department and others, reports Julia Scott in the County Times.

The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified punitive damages from the Cabrillo Unified School District, San Mateo County Department of Health Services, San Mateo County Office of Education, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office and American Medical Response West, was filed in San Mateo County Superior Court in late April with a request for a jury trial. The boy’s parents are waiting until the end of the school year to serve the 40 defendants with their lawsuits, including 12 teachers and school district administrators, according to their lawyer, Trevor Jackson.

Jackson said the parents are still trying to find out what led to the incident at El Granada Elementary School on the morning of April 25, 2007, just one week after the Virginia Tech shootings, when several San Mateo County Sheriff’s deputies were called in to question a fourth-grade student with a mental disability who had been playing a game in which he and the other children were pretending to shoot one other with their fingers. According to the lawsuit, a classmate had yelled "Shut up, I’m going to kill you!" And the boy responded in kind.

The boy’s mother allegedly was prevented from witnessing the interrogation that followed in the school principal’s office, but later on he told her that two sheriff’s deputies had "bullied" him into saying he wanted to hurt himself or others.

"That’s crap," one officer is alleged to have responded when the boy denied wanting to hurt anyone, according to the lawsuit. "You know you want to kill people, who do you want to kill?"

The boy was suspended for three days, after he admitted to the allegation. The lawsuit says he did this to stop the interrogation and that his classmates were told about the incident in violation of his privacy rights.