DUNKIRK — A boy was shoved under a desk and physically injured in a Dunkirk elementary school by a teacher aide in March 2018, according to a recent federal lawsuit against the Dunkirk school district and several other parties.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court, Western District of New York, Nov. 2 for Marisol Mendez, mother of the boy. The child was in the first grade when he was allegedly hurt by a teacher aide on March 23, 2018.

The teacher aide is not named in the lawsuit, which was filed by the Rupp Baase Pfalzgraf Cunningham law firm of Buffalo. The narrative presented in their court filing not only alleges the injury, but claims the school district attempted to downplay it.

The boy, named by the initials D.M. in the filing, was in class when the alleged incident happened. The aide, “Jane Doe No. 2,” instructed the students to play a game. D.M. didn’t want to.

“(The boy) slid out of his chair and sat underneath. (The child) sat on the ground beneath his desk and chair,” the lawsuit states.

“(The aide), in a fit of anger, grabbed (the boy) and picked him up off the ground … then pushed (the boy) into his chair. Using her foot, (the aide) pushed (the boy’s) chair towards the desk. (His) chest was crushed while (the aide) continued to use her foot to push (the child)’s chair toward the desk.”

He went to the nurse, complaining of chest pain, the lawsuit continues. The boy allegedly told the nurse the aide caused the pain. Daniel Genovese, principal of the school, and the aide then allegedly “evaluated” the boy and told him to go back to class.

After a day of “extreme discomfort” in school, the boy returned home and told his mother, Mendez, what had happened. Mendez took him to Brooks Memorial Hospital where X-rays were taken and he was found to have a chest contusion, the lawsuit states.

The court filing goes on to allege that a school district investigation never contacted the child or his classmates, instead relying solely on the aide’s statement. She was “exonerated of all wrongdoing for her actions,” the lawsuit claims.

Another claim: For the rest of the school year, when the aide supervised the boy’s class, she made him sit in the hallway alone, because one or more defendants told her she couldn’t interact with the boy.

The lawsuit also alleges that the aide had a prior history of misbehavior, that the district knew about and condoned.

Mendez and her son ask for a jury trial in their court filing. They seek compensation and damages “in an amount to be determined at trial.”

The superintendent of the Dunkirk school district in 2018, James Tracy, was one of the defendants named the lawsuit. The interim superintendent when he left, Sylvia Root, is also named, as are current Superintendent Michael Mansfield and Genovese. The school nurse and the teacher aide, named as Jane Doe Nos. 1 and 2, are co-defendants. Finally, so is the city of Dunkirk.

The Dunkirk School District didn’t want to comment on the lawsuit Thursday.

“The alleged incident took place under another administration, but our official statement is that the district does not comment on ongoing legal matters,” the district’s communications director, Jennifer Westerholt, said.

City of Dunkirk Attorney Rich Morrisroe explained at a Dec. 6 Common Council meeting that he thinks the city will be dropped from the suit. The filing was included in the documents sent out for that day’s meeting.

Morrisroe said that in many lawsuits, multiple defendants are named in an attempt to get compensation from the most people possible. Morrisroe said he expects the city’s insurance counsel will be able to get the city government dropped, as it does not supervise classrooms in any way.