A Black mother plans a $40 million lawsuit against the city of Yonkers after her 13-year-old daughter was attacked at school by a group of parents who instigated a fight between the girl and one of their relatives, also a student — leading to a harrowing brawl that has since gone viral on social media.
Days after the fight, Alenna Merritt said she took her child out of Yonkers Montessori Academy and filed legal papers that put the city on notice about the coming lawsuit, claiming the school was negligent and didn’t properly supervise the students, which could have prevented the melee.
The legal notice of claim, delivered to the city of Yonkers on April 25, is a formal notification of a lawsuit before it’s filed against a municipal agency.
Merritt’s action alleges negligent supervision, negligent hiring, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and other related accusations against Yonkers, the Yonkers Board of Education, and Yonkers Montessori Academy.
For Merritt, this was not her first negative experience with the academy after she previously filed a notice of legal claim in January, alleging that school staff sexually harassed her daughter by asking her to remove her bra and shake her breasts, suspecting she was hiding a vape.