EDUCATION
Lawsuit: Queens School Didn’t Stop Anti-Gay Bullying
Father of gay son says offi cials blamed child for his own abuse
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
A gay dad is suing a school
district in Queens after
his child allegedly suffered
years of anti-LGBTQ
bullying and faced hostility
from school offi cials.
For two years, the sixth-grader
— identifi ed in court papers as
“D.S.” — was allegedly harassed
for being gay at IS 126Q, the Albert
Shanker School for Visual and Performing
Arts at 31-51 21st Street
in Astoria, according to the lawsuit
fi led in Manhattan Federal Court
on June 28. The child’s family alleges
that the school neglected to
stop the bullying against their son,
leading the child to contemplate
suicide. Instead, the family charges
that administrators responded
to the harassment with homophobic
rhetoric, according to a copy of
the lawsuit reviewed by Gay City
News.
The harassment allegedly began
in 2017, shortly after D.S. came out
as gay to his classmates and teachers.
While in school, peers ripped
the boy for having gay parents,
said he was “acting like a girl,”
called him “fa—t ass” and “bitch,”
and “told him that he would be
damned to hell by God because of
his ‘lifestyle,'” according to the lawsuit.
The boy was also physically
assaulted due to his sexual orientation,
the lawsuit said.
Jason Cianciotto, the child’s father,
told Gay City News that the
school failed to protect his son.
“I had falsely made the presumption
that when it came to bullying
in school, while we couldn’t prevent
School offi cials neglected a case of anti-LGBTQ bullying at IS 126Q in Queens, according to a new suit.
it from happening consistently,
that the school would follow that
anti-discrimination laws and put
a stop to it immediately,” Cianciotto
said. “It continued no matter what
we did.”
Cianciotto and his husband adopted
the boy from foster care. The
boy also has a learning disability,
which was magnifi ed by the bullying
in school.
“Instead of being greeted with
the same kind of support and welcoming
that he had gotten from our
family… he was met with bullying
and harassment, and dismissal,
and even religious-based condemnation
GOOGLE MAPS
of himself, and his dads,”
Cianciotto said.
According to the lawsuit, the
school conducted “half-hearted investigations”
and “deemed many
of D.S.’s complaints unfounded.”
School offi cials allegedly accused
D.S of making up the harassment
and blamed him for being out
about his sexuality, the lawsuit
charged. When the boy was told
that LGBTQ people are “destined
to burn in hell,” administrators allegedly
dismissed the incident as a
“difference of opinion.”
During a meeting with the
school’s dean, Cianciotto said his
son was criticized for the wave of
homophobic incidents. He alleges
that the dean said it was “inappropriate”
for the then middle-schooler
to discuss his sexual orientation
with other students.
“She also said, ‘well, if D.S
didn’t talk about being gay in
school, then these things wouldn’t
happen,” Cianciotto said. “The
school’s responsibility was to follow
the law and stop and prevent
the bullying from happening, not
to blame my son for it and just try
to get him not to be himself.”
On another occasion, students
slammed D.S. for writing about
the passage of the Gender Expression
Non-Discrimination Act or
GENDA, which added gender identity
and expression as a protected
class in the state’s human rights
and hate crimes laws. While giving
a presentation about the report,
D.S. detailed the importance of
the law and spoke about his uncle,
who is a transgender man.
That’s when the child was “immediately
cut off by the teacher”
and “told to stop reading,” the dad
said. According to the lawsuit, the
teacher claimed that the topic was
“too personal.”
The bullying quickly took a toll
on his son’s mental health. The
dad said D.S., who appeared to
be making progress from years of
childhood trauma, began to “poke
his fi ngers into his eyes” and frequently
talk about death.
“It was so horrifi c and tragic and
sad to see,” the dad said. “The comfort
that he had gotten after living
with us over time and approaching
his adoption hearing date that was
interfered with by what was happening
at school.”
The same year that the couple’s
son became a target for bullies, a
gay Bronx teenager made headlines
for fatally stabbing a student
after being subjected to years
of bullying and failing to receive
proper support from school offi -
cials. Findings from GLSEN’s 2019
National School Climate Survey
revealed that anti-LGBTQ bullying
and language has persisted in
schools.
As the bullying intensifi ed in
2019, Cianciotto and his husband
withdrew D.S. from the school in
seventh grade. The family is seeking
unspecifi ed damages for the
alleged abuse. The DOE did not respond
to Gay City News’ requests
for comment as of press time.
The couple’s son will soon be 15
years old and is now in high school.
The dad describes the teens’ new
school environment as “different
like night and day compared to IS
126.”
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