Shocking video shows the moment an elementary school student pummeled a special needs pupil – while their teacher encouraged the violence.
The furious mother of the seven-year-old victim has launched a lawsuit against George Washington Carver School in Indianapolis over the incident.
Corrie Horan’s lawsuit in Marion County, Indiana, on behalf of her son accuses teacher Julious Johnican of ‘orchestrating a reprehensible “fight club” type of discipline within his classroom over a span of three months’.
She became aware of this after Johnican himself accidentally showed her mobile phone footage of her son, who has ADHD, being beaten by another second-grader, according to the suit.
The attacker can be heard saying ‘don’t mess with me’ while throwing punches as her son cries on the ground – and their second-grade teacher shouts ‘you get him.’
Shocking video shows the moment an elementary school student beat up a special needs pupil while their teacher encouraged the violence
Second grade teacher Julious Johnican (pictured) is accused of ‘orchestrating a reprehensible “fight club” type of discipline within his classroom over a span of three months’
The furious mother of the seven-year-old victim has launched a civil complaint against George Washington Carver School in Indianapolis over the incident
The teacher and school officials have yet to respond to the lawsuit. DailyMail.com has contacted the school, principal and school board for comment on the lawsuit.
Horan says the fight is only the tip of the iceberg. Her son, known as O.D. in the suit, had been complaining of bullying and abuse in the classroom dating to August 2023.
‘Within the first few weeks of school, O.D. began to come home sad, upset, behaviorally dysregulated, and reporting abuse, bullying, and classroom harassment,’ the lawsuit says.
Outlining Johnican’s ‘fight club’, the suit adds: ‘In this horrifying setup, Johnican not only permitted but incited and facilitated other students to engage in acts of violence against seven-year-old O.D.’
It says the problems ‘included at least three beatings and various forms of physical harm and bullying both for his own amusement or as a deeply disturbed disciplinary measure.’
‘This systemic abuse occurred within the school premises and within O.D.’s classroom, a place where seven-year-old disabled O.D. should have been nurtured and protected, not subjected to repeated and organized violence,’ the suit adds.
The lawsuit stresses Johnican encouraged behavior which went beyond ‘mere pushing or shoving’, by orchestrating ‘physical assaults.’
‘O.D. was thrown to the ground, struck, slapped and hit in the head repeatedly,’ the suit says.
‘On two occasions it is reported that he (Johnican) held O.D. while allowing other students to punch, hit, and kick him.’
Johnican also made ‘continuous threats’ to the boy and subjected him to ‘deliberate humiliation,’ according to his mother.
The attacker can be heard saying ‘don’t mess with me’ while throwing punches as her son cries on the ground – and Johnican shouts ‘you get him’
Johnican is accused of encouraging special-needs children to fight in his classroom at George Washington Carver School in Indianapolis
She said it led her child ‘developing a profound anxiety specifically related to the school environment.’ His grades fell and he began to ‘plead’ with her to let him skip school.
Substitute teacher Pardeep Dahliwal was also present in the classroom during the attacks.
On top of the alleged hostile campaign against her child by Johnican, the pupil was also subjected to discriminatory comments from another, unnamed teacher.
O.D. told his mother that ‘a teacher working with Mr. Johnican said that special needs students were demonically possessed.’
The child said staff told him he was ‘bad’ and that ‘holy water needed to be poured on him’ to ‘cure him of his evil.’
Horan said she arranged meetings with Johnican about her son’s worries, but he ‘dismissed’ them and ‘indicated that O.D. was lying or mentally ill.’
The teacher ‘repeatedly suggested that O.D. was fabricating stories as part of an escalating effort to avoid attending school’.
Things reached a head on September 22, 2023, when the school called Horan telling her O.D. could not calm down and that she needed to speak with him on the phone.
She believed him to be experiencing hyperactivity, but said when he spoke to her he was ‘hysterical.’ Horan left work and drove to the school to find out what was happening, and found him ‘upset, traumatized and shaken.’
Horan spoke with vice-principal Finae Rent (pictured) about the abuse, but the employee did not follow up with an investigation or provide any additional information, a lawsuit claims
Shockingly, the investigator said that when they questioned Principal Mary Kapcoe (pictured), who is also a defendant in the suit, she said substitute teacher Dahliwal defended the fights
The mom said when she got the classroom, her son and another pupil were looking at something on Johnican’s phone but they ‘immediately’ put it away when she approached.
‘The parent demanded to observe in the classroom and was allowed to stay for approximately 45 minutes, and during the entirety of her stay, no one from the School explained to her what had happened with her son’s behavior or the phone call she received,’ her lawsuit says.
Her son walked her to the front school doors when she left – and ‘he reported in tears to her that he that he was being abused in school.’
He said that ‘on Johnican’s instructions, another pupil had slammed his head down on a desk, pulled him to the floor, and then hit him repeatedly in the head’.
Horan spoke with vice-principal Finae Rent that day, but the employee did not follow up with an investigation or provide any additional information, the suit claims.
‘She was repeatedly informed that it was her child who was disruptive, lying, and that this was a sign of a disordered personality in the child and related to his ADHD,’ her lawsuit reads.
Horan said that ‘tragically’ she did not believe her own son’s accounts of what was happening because they seemed so extreme and were refuted by the school, the family claims.
But this changed on November 1 when she met with Johnican for a parent-teacher conference and he accidentally showed her the fight video on his phone.
While attempting to show a video of the ‘classroom environment’, Johnican ‘inadvertently began showing the wrong video, in this one the parents saw their child being attacked’.
Horan’s lawsuit also names Superintendent Aleesia Johnson (pictured) for failing to protect her son from the harms of the school which was under her supervision
The furious mother of the seven-year-old victim has launched a civil complaint against George Washington Carver School in Indianapolis over the incident
Horan tried to grab his phone, and as he pulled it away he accidentally turned up the volume so that she could hear him ‘instigating and encouraging the beating of their disabled seven-year-old child.’
The school secretary was informed and she contacted the Indiana Department of Child Services who launched an investigation.
Shockingly, the investigator said that when they questioned Principal Mary Kapcoe, who is also a defendant in the suit, she said substitute teacher Dahliwal defended the fights.
When asked about the allegations by Kapcoe, Dahliwal said of the children, several of whom have special needs: ‘They’re bad kids, that’s what you do,’ the suit claims.
The abuse was also reported by Horan’s son to Anthony Bigby, the IPS Behavioral Consultant, but he took no action.
Horan’s lawsuit also names Superintendent Aleesia Johnson for failing to protect her son from the harms of the school which was under her supervision.
‘The relentless daily verbal threats, harassment, abuse and at least three documented and substantiated physical attacks and beatings instigated by his teacher had a catastrophic effect on O.D.’s mental well-being, leading to a marked deterioration in his emotional health,’ Horan’s lawsuit concludes.
‘The environment created by IPS manifested in escalating symptoms of anxiety and depression, deeply affecting this disabled seven-year-old’s educational journey.’
She said the actions and inactions of the Indianapolis Public School Staff had ‘resulted in profound psychological and emotional trauma’ for her son.
Horan alleges discrimination, negligent care, negligent hiring, retention and supervision, and inadequate policies and protection against the school. The filing asks for an unspecified amount of money.
She is demanding a jury trial to get justice for her son.