Elementary Fight Club: Aide at The Parkway School recruited bully to beat my son, mom says

Rachel Monahan, Kerry Burke and John Marzulli
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

 

Friday, February 12th 2010, 4:00 AM

 

Noonan for News

Tyreik Bowers, 10, has been kept home from his school by his mother, Felicia Waldron, because she fears retaliation.

Noonan for NewsTyreik Bowers was treated for a head injury.

Mecea for NewsSchool aide Ayodele Sandiford

A Brooklyn school aide has been suspended after being accused of recruiting a bully to pummel a fourth-grader in the latest fight club in a city elementary school, the Daily News has learned.

A second school aide also was suspended and accused of videotaping the beatdown with her cell phone, Department of Education officials said.

The shocking attack happened on Feb. 5 - only eight days after a Queens teacher and aide refereed a wrestling match between fourth-graders in a locked classroom.

Tyreik Bowers, 10, has been kept home from The Parkway School in Crown Heights by his mother because she fears retaliation not only from students, but from school aides as well.

"I don't feel he's safe," the mother, Felicia Waldron, said. "The adults will be plotting against him the rest of the [school] year."

The beatdown started when Tyreik and a fourth-grade girl argued in the school auditorium during recess. The girl made a comment about Tyreik's mother, prompting Tyreik to warn her that he'd hit her if she said it again, according to Waldron.

That's when school aide Ayodele Sandiford stepped in and told the girl she could repeat the comment, which she did - leading Tyreik to slug her, Waldron said.

The mother claimed Sandiford asked another student to locate a fifth-grader who has a reputation as the school bully. The older child came over and began punching Tyreik in the face, head and back, while also swinging him around by his arm, Waldron said.

"Ms. Sandiford told a lunch room aide not to break it up, to let them fight," Waldron said.

If that wasn't bad enough, a DOE incident report notes that "it has been alleged by students, school aides and a teacher that Ms. Florence Brown was videotaping the fight with her cellular phone."

Brown, a school aide, called the allegation "a lie" in a telephone interview. "I was trying to call the principal downstairs to help," she said.

In a brief interview, Sandiford also denied the allegations. "It's something the child's mother made up," she said, adding later, "I am a good employee. People are making up things about me to make money. It's embarrassing."

An Education Department spokeswoman said Sandiford had asked the fifth-grader to break up the fight, which was "inappropriate." Both aides were docked two days' pay.

Lawyer Sanford Rubenstein filed a notice to sue the city for $2 million yesterday, and he blasted school officials for not notifying the NYPD about the incident.

"If any school personnel committed a crime, particularly endangering the welfare of a minor, they must be held accountable," Rubenstein said.

Tyreik was treated for a head injury at Interfaith Medical Center. This is his first year attending public school because Waldron could no longer afford the tuition at David Grayson Christian Academy.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/2010/02/12/2010-02-12_school_aide_at_the_parkway_school_recruited_bully_to_beat_my_son_says_mom_felici.html#ixzz0fZh9SZBX