A Brooklyn high school did nothing properly when a transgender 9th grader’s classmates bullied her on social media, culminating in an assault on the girl that was caught on video, according to a complaint.
Ronette Hinkson filed a case against the city and WH Maxwell Career and Technical Education High School with the State Division of Human Rights on March 11 after her 15-year-old transgender daughter was beaten by a classmate’s cousin on January 18 was 
dropped out of school, the complaint claims.
In a video made available to The Post, students can be heard cheering as the student – identified as MB in the complaint – is thrown to the ground and repeatedly punched and slapped by a male teenager. Another person jumps in and appears to deal with MB before officers end the fight.
Before the attack, on Nov. 9, students using fake names allegedly insulted MB in a Snapchat group message, the complaint says. And again on November 19, students sent malicious messages to MB, including “Stupid t—y bitch,” “You’re a waste of cum,” and “T—y ass bitch,” the complaint reads.
In the same chat, a cousin of MB’s classmate MB threatened, “If you don’t hug my cousin, I’ll come to this school, please don’t play with me,” the complaint said. And the cousin – dubbed “King” – would be one of the kids months later to attack MB.
MB notified a teacher and a counselor at the school about the Snapchat bullying in
November, but the staff said nothing to MB’s mother or the police, opting instead for the student who initiated the Snapchat messages to contact MB to apologize, the court filings say.
“I am almost in tears now to think of my child going through a transition from birth to a male [and] now having a life like this where people don’t understand my kid and want to hurt my kid for no reason,” Hinkson, 46, told the Post.
“I’m a very committed parent, so knowing that I can’t protect my child in a situation like this… it hurts,” Hinkson said.
The mum said it was “heartbreaking” to watch the video and know it was posted to Instagram before cruelly texting MB. “I was at a loss for words, especially since it was posted on social media,” Hinkson said.
“My child could have been killed and they could have pretended nothing happened, [like] it wasn’t anything serious — it’s traumatizing,” Hinkson said as she started to cry.
Hinkson said she only found out about the November bullying in January and only found out about the attack on MB several days later, prompting her to report both incidents to the police and immediately pull MB out of the school.
“My child was bullied and reported it to the school counselor,” Hinkson said. “The hope is that the advisor would have done the right thing and brought everyone together and solved the problem.”
Hinkson says the bullying made MB more suspicious of people and made her “more of a loner.”
MB now attends another public high school closer to her home in Queens, the mother said.
“She was an outgoing person, now she doesn’t really trust people,” Hinkson said, noting that MB’s distrust extends to adults as well, since the teachers didn’t protect her.
“Not a single person at WH Maxwell High has ever let Ronette know that their minor child
was molested and physically threatened at school,” the complaint reads. “This willful negligence led to the January 18, 2022 attack.”
“The DOE condoned discrimination and retaliation” from other classmates, “while remaining willfully indifferent, not enforcing its own rules and refusing … to require mandatory reporting of discrimination, retaliation, and threats of physical violence against students,” it says it in the complaint .
“My client has a God-given right to attend a New York City public school free from discrimination and bullying based on gender identity, and the Department of Education needs to do better,” said David H. Rosenberg, attorney for Hinkson and MB
“Bullying and harassment have absolutely no place in our school communities. We take such allegations and the safety of our students very seriously and will investigate the complaint. Our schools must be havens for our young people as they advance academically and socially,” said Department of Education spokeswoman Sarah Casasnovas.
