An attorney for the parents of a 15-year-old boy who suffered serious head injuries in an ambush attack in the Kingston High School cafeteria has filed a “Notice of Claim” — a preliminary step to a lawsuit — against the Kingston City School District. Meanwhile, a second civil case involving a 2021 assault at the high school is currently in state Supreme Court.

On Friday, Kingston attorney Joe O’Connor, who’s representing the victim’s family, told Kingston Wire that he filed the notice in state Supreme Court earlier this week. The complaint involves a May 3 attack in a crowded Kingston High School cafeteria. On that day, 16-year-old Ty’Juan Gray and a 15-year-old student whom police have not identified because of his age allegedly walked up behind the victim as he sat at a cafeteria table and, without warning, began punching and kicking him before throwing him to the floor, where they continued to pummel him. Gray then allegedly climbed onto a lunch table and jumped feet first onto the victim’s head. The injured boy was airlifted to Westchester Medical Center where he underwent life-saving surgery to remove a portion of his skull and relieve swelling in the brain. Prosecutors believe the assault, which was filmed by a third student and watched as it happened by another youth via FaceTime, was a premeditated attack in retaliation for a gang-related dispute outside of school.

The legal action filed by O’Connor alleges that multiple failures by school officials enabled the brutal assault. Most notably, O’Connor said, the victim’s mother told at least seven Kingston High School staff, including an administrator, that her son was in danger. O’Connor said that she aired her concerns at an April 20 meeting attended by six teachers and a vice principal. At the time, her son was a serving a five-day suspension following a physical altercation with one of the boys allegedly involved in the cafeteria assault two weeks later. One of the students involved in the dispute, O’Connor said, had previously been disciplined for throwing a fellow student down a flight of stairs. His client, O’Connor said, had also been skipping school regularly out of fear.

“There was some absenteeism and his explanation was that he didn’t feel safe,” said O’Connor. “He told people some kids were threatening him.”

During the April 20 meeting, O’Connor said, the victim’s mother communicated clearly to school officials that her son was not safe in school and identified the clique of boys threatening him. What, if anything, was done in response to the warning is unclear. But O’Connor said that the fact that school officials were made aware of the situation prior to the assault pointed to clear culpability on the part of the district.

“A lot of times in these cases the school will say, ‘We had no reason to believe was going to happen so we couldn’t have prevented it,’” said O’Connor. “But in this case, there was advance notice, they were warned that something was going to happen.”

The legal action also cites alleged failures in the training, deployment and response by Kingston High School staff as contributing factors. O’Connor said the two attackers and a third student who filmed the assault should not have been in the cafeteria at all, because it was not their lunch period. But monitors and an administrator failed to take notice of their presence.

“Staff were not paying attention,” said O’Connor. “Other than a couple of boys who tried to help, no one tried to break it up, it was a really slow response.”

Meanwhile, a second lawsuit filed last year alleges that the school district also failed to prevent the Oct. 21, 2021 assault of another student inside a KHS classroom. The lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, is currently in the discovery phase. Attorney for the plaintiffs Alex Mainetti told Kingston Wire he’s seeking footage from the high school’s extensive network of security cameras, previous complaints or disciplinary actions against the attacker and other evidence. Mainetti said the facts in the 2021 case bear “remarkable similarities” to the May 3 assault. He added that the student who attacked his client had exhibited threatening behavior in the past and should not have been in the classroom he was assigned to.

“The school had notice that the student who attacked my client had a propensity to be aggressive,” said Mainetti. “He was supposed to be in a special program. He should not have been in the classroom with my client.”

The legal actions come as educators locally and nationwide are sounding alarms about student behavior and mental health in the wake of pandemic shutdowns which left millions of students without the structure of school for over a year. When students returned to Kingston High School in September 2021, school officials were forced to beef up security, including bringing in police to cover school sporting events because of fights and rowdy behavior at KHS football games. Around the same time, local activist groups pushed for major changes in school disciplinary protocols, including limits on out-of-school suspensions and the removal of School Resource Officers, things they claimed had a disproportionate negative impact on students of color.

O’Connor said that he had been reviewing hours of school board meetings and had been struck by the number of parents who had voiced concern about student safety and the relative lack of focus on security by school officials.

“It seems like the school district has been intent on decreasing security, SROs and that type of thing despite increasing threats,” said O’Connor.