Middle school students in Queens say they're being bullied, attacked because they're migrants
NEW YORK -- Some students who attend a Queens middle school say they're being bullied and beaten simply because they're migrants.
City school officials are now looking into whether the incidents are isolated or if it's another battle for some of the city's youngest migrants.
"It's very difficult," says 13-year-old Odilys Torres, in tears. She started to attend J.H.S. 226 in Queens in September, a few months after her family arrived in New York from Venezuela.
Sitting beside her mother, she told CBS New York that earlier this month, she was bullied and beaten on a bus on her way home from school.
"They grabbed my hair, they punched me in the head, kicked me in the stomach," she said in Spanish, "and they did tell me to get out of this country and leave this bus."
Her family attends HopeNYC, a church that has been a safe haven for them. It's blocks away from the shelter the city placed them into after their long and scary journey.
A spokesperson from New York City Public Schools tells CBS New York:
"The safety and well-being of all our students is our top priority. After the school was informed of this incident, the school immediately responded, taking all necessary and appropriate steps, including launching an investigation and ensuring access to in-school supports for students. Bullying has absolutely no place in our school communities, and we take every report of bullying extremely seriously."
"I want it to be publicly known my daughter's case is not the only case," Amaja said.
Odilys Torres's mother says after she made numerous complaints to the school and filed a police report, the students were suspended and teachers are now keeping a close eye on her daughter in and out of the classroom, but she says other kids in the shelter are going through the same thing at school.
"'I want you to get out of this country. You don't know how to speak English,'" student Abrue Mendez Omanlis said.
This teen's family also recently arrived from Venezuela and is staying at the same shelter. She says she too was beaten by a group of girls. Her incident happened inside the middle school.
"I'm shocked because I never thought this would happen," mom Karen Mendez-Parra said.
School officials are now investigating her incident.
Both moms say despite any backlash they may face for coming forward, they don't want it to happen to any other young girl.
"I don't want this to happen to other people also. I'm not 100% OK," one person said.
School officials say if your child is being bullied in school, notify officials right away. They say school staff is trained annually on anti-bullying policies.
Students and parents can also report things online at nycenet.edu/bullyingreporting.
For more information about the Department of Education's protocol and procedure for investigating incidents, click here.