The mother of a young boy is suing the Newark Public Schools district and Oliver Street Elementary School because her son, according to the lawsuit, “was the victim of child sexual harassment, bullying and abuse by an older and bigger classmate, and race discrimination and illegal actions by defendants.”

The child was in a mixed-age special education classroom during his kindergarten year at the East Ward’s Oliver Street school during the time of the abuse, which occurred on an ongoing basis from February to May of 2019. According to Advance Media, the abuse continued until the boy “was sexually assaulted in his classroom, in a pen-like ‘quiet area’ with partitions on three sides that obscured the view of children sitting or lying on the floor.” The mother had been reporting concerns for months but was ignored by administrators, says the suit.

The suit says the student’s Individualized Education Plan required the district to provide him with a one-on-one instructional aide for five hours a day. However, the school never told the mother that the aide left in February and was never replaced.

The East Ward is a heavily-Portuguese section of Newark. At Oliver Street Elementary School, according to the state database, 2.4% of students are Black and 72% are Latino. A former social worker for the school, who was deposed by lawyers, said,

“I would say that in talking to many of my colleagues who worked in the East Ward, people can point out discrepancies in how children were treated and how staff was treated. Just from years of hearing parents talk about that, and some things I may have observed, and I wondered, you know, I wondered if this child was Portuguese, would they be treated like this? Or there were times I may have been called to a situation, and when I get there, I see the person is Black, and I’m going, ‘Okay.’”

The social worker also said the teacher didn’t seem “equipped” to handle a mixed-age classroom of students with disabilities. The teacher has since left the district, as has the principal.

The district spokeswoman says the district does not respond to requests for comment on ongoing litigation, including whether Newark Public Schools and the family are in settlement negotiations.