Lawsuit Over Snowballs? There Has To Be More To This.
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An article in today's Staten Island Advance tells of the filing of a lawsuit over an incident that occurred on February 12, 2010 in front of Morris Intermediate School. The lawsuit, filed today in State Supreme Court in St. George, alleges that the mother of a 12-year old Morris Intermediate School student was assaulted by a school safety officer as she went to pick up her daughter. As the mother arrived at school, she noticed that her daughter was being pelted with snowballs by some other students.The mom, Katherine Galindo, immediately ran over to her daughter to help to protect her. The confrontation eventually escalated to the point where the other students began to push the daughter and then Ms. Galindo herself. A school safety officer ordered Ms. Galindo to leave and threatened her arrest. Ms. Galindo explained that she was only defending her daughter. It is then alleged that the school safety officer pushed her and threw her into a gate. She was then arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.
As the matter involved City of New York employees, a Notice of Claim was filed within 90 days after the incident happened, putting the City of New York on notice of what is alleged to have occurred. If the Notice of Claim was not timely filed, Ms. Galindo would be unable to bring a lawsuit for any injuries she sustained from this incident. The City of New York also requires that a lawsuit be filed within one year and 90 days after incident. These short time frames ensure that the City can properly investigate what occurred instead of years later when it becomes much more difficult.
The facts of this case are unusual but if the allegations are true, the school safety officer assaulted Ms. Galindo when he pushed her into a fence. What is most surprising to me are the 9 comments left on the SILive website. First, they all ignore what is alleged to have occurred - an assault committed on a 12-year old girl's mother, someones wife! Would anyone else be enraged if a school safety officer put their hands on your wife? I know I would. One comment even goes so far as to equate a physical assault with receiving a wrong order at Dunkin Donuts. And why would it be wrong to come to the aid of your 12-year old child? Should the mother have just stood by and watched? What would the comments have been then? I am at a loss to understand why a mom rushing to her daughter's aid was wrong to react the way she did. And if her story is proven to be true, she should be entitled to have her case heard in court. Even if she did raise her voice or was rude to the school safety officer, that does not give him the right to touch or assault Ms. Galindo to cause her injuries.
