Student sues Austin ISD claiming teachers, classmates bullied him for supporting Trump
AUSTIN, Texas — The family of an Austin ISD student filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the district, claiming it allowed teachers and other students bully their son for being a supporter of President Trump.
The student is unidentified, but referred to as Jon Doe in the lawsuit -- O’Henry Middle School and Austin High School are named as the locations for the abuse.
Court documents say the boy was verbally abused and publicly ridiculed by teachers, physically assaulted by other students, and "most recently threatened with his life" by fellow students. "Why? ...having the audacity of supporting the President of the United States," the lawsuit claims.
Allegedly, while schools were still open before the pandemic, he was personally confronted by another student who publicly stated for all to hear: “oh my f---ing god, I am going to kill all Trump supporters, I don’t give a s—t who hears it. I want to kill them all.”
He reported the threat to his teachers, but nothing was done. "Ironically, the lock down from the COVID-19 pandemic has done more to protect Jon from harm than anyone at Defendant Austin-ISD ever did," the lawsuit said. "Jon’s peers, with the acceptance of the educators and administrators of Defendant Austin-ISD, routinely publicly called Jon out as being Homophobic (which Jon is not), Xenophobic (which Jon is not), Racist (which Jon is not), Islamophobic (which Jon is not), a Klansman (which Jon is not), Deplorable (which Jon is not), and a Nazi (which Jon is not)."
RELATED: Texas classrooms can stay closed, not lose state funding if local officials order it
The family says they filed various grievances to stop the targeting, but at each step of the process he was denied protection.
"If a gay, black, brown, Asian, immigrant, or liberal employee of Defendant Austin-ISD was treated the way Plaintiff Jon has been treated, the perpetrators would have been harshly dealt with by Defendant Austin-ISD," the court documents say.
The family is asking for monetary damages due to Jon suffering "physical pain and mental anguish, and the loss of opportunity in future educational and professional endeavors."
