Oct 20, 2009 7:13 pm US/Eastern
Transfer Denied For Allegedly Threatened Student
STATEN ISLAND (CBS) ―
A Staten Island mother is battling the Department of Education to get a transfer for her daughter. She says her child has been threatened by other girls, and for now, she's not going to school.
For Suhailah Abdullah, this was a day off from school. It's been like this for nearly three weeks, staying home because she says, other students have threatened her. "That they would cut me," she said.
It was in August, she said, that she was threatened outside her home by four or five other girls who thought she wanted to fight them.
The girls attend I.S. 51 on Houston Street on Staten Island, where Suhailah has been a student for the last two years.
The child's mother said on September 24, she received a message that her daughter would be attacked, or as she says, "smoked."
"I received a message, a text message on my phone stating that my daughter was going to be smoked after school. I took this as shot. Back in my day, you're going to be smoked meant you're going be shot," said her mother Virginia Riddle.
Suhailah said she was warned to stay away from the fast food place near the school. "They were going to jump me if I went by Burger King," she said.
The girl's mother said she requested a transfer from the school for the child's safety, but was twice denied. A spokeswoman for the Department of Ed said paperwork for such a transfer was not in order, but added: "The DOE is going through the process and is looking for options for the girl. We should have a resolution soon."
"She wants to go to school. She doesn't want to be home all day. She wants to be in school, she want to come home, do her homework, like everybody else," Riddle said.
But until it's all sorted out, this 13-year-old is doing nothing but hanging out.
A safety transfer to remove a child from an unsafe situation is not automatic. Parents cannot select a specific school for placement, and transfer is allowed only to a school where a seat is available.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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