The Autism News | English


Bullies at the Malverne middle school have kicked, taunted, chased and harassed autistic eighth-grader Joel Luna Menjivar, according to his mother, Ana, who called the Herald in a desperate attempt to get help.

School administrators have given Luna Menjivar plenty of lip service, but taken little to no corrective action, said the Guatemala native, who is not a fluent English speaker. She said the problem has persisted throughout her son’s time in the middle school, but in recent months it has escalated. Two incidents in particular, both occurring in the Howard T. Herber Middle School cafeteria, stand out for her because they resulted in either physical injuries or trauma. In one case, she said, a student struck Joel in the face with a glass bottle and in another, a student tried to pull down his pants.

“He did not take it off … because Joel run away,” Luna Menjivar said, “but I don’t know where is the one-to-one [aide], where is the security, where is everybody, where is the teachers? For 20 or 25 minutes he [was] very scared.”

Joel speaks English well and can communicate at a relatively high level despite his autism, but he is still a special-needs student who has trouble socializing, his mother said, adding, “He is a good boy, he listens, he is respectful.” She praised the Malverne school district, its special education program and its teachers, who have helped her son achieve high grades. Joel is particularly gifted in math and takes an honors class. Luna Menjivar’s daughters, Angie, 11, and Giovanna, 8, also do well in school. But while the classrooms are safe places, Joel is subject to bullying in the hallways, the cafeteria, outside and after school, she said.

She and his father, Bernardo Luna, said they have reported to school authorities each incident their son has told them about. At one point, Luna went directly to the Malverne Police Department to file a report. The department sent a detective to Herber to investigate, but referred the matter back to the school. “We really can’t do anything if we don’t witness it,” Chief John Aresta told the Herald, adding that when it comes to children being bullied in school, the police generally have little power. Herber’s dean of students, Dan Nehlsen, did, however, tell police that the student responsible for that incident would be suspended, Aresta added.

The incident with the bottle was never reported to police, but had it been, it would be considered assault with a weapon and the department would have taken action, according to Aresta.

Superintendent Dr. James Hunderfund said that Joel’s parents never reported the bottle incident to the school. Instead, seeing that the “child looked disturbed,” a school psychologist spoke with him and discovered what had happened. Simultaneously, the police approached the district about the matter, and administrators took immediate action, Hunderfund said, adding that school initiated a superintendent’s hearing and issued the responsible student an “extensive penalty” that was “beyond typical action.”

“The situation was addressed very conscientiously and immediately,” Hunderfund said. “We follow policy, we take very seriously any form of bullying, we have an absolute anti-bullying policy and we do have anti-bullying programs in the school, including character education, and we don’t tolerate it.”

Hunderfund said that through behavioral-modification and character-education programs, which include assemblies and guest speakers, “treatment of others and values are very well-reviewed with students in the curriculum and practiced every day.” But, he added, Joel’s situation is unique — he already has constant adult supervision, yet he is still subject to bullying.

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