New Haven mom upset with school's response to bullying

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- A New Haven mom is butting heads with the New Haven School District over bullying. She says she hears horror stories from her son, and says the school district isn't following their own bullying policy.

It's not every day that Orlando Santiago has a smile ear-to-ear getting off the school bus.

"He is deathly afraid. He cries all the time," said Candy Ortiz-Kopylec. "In the morning I have to force him to go to school. He begs me not to send him, to the point where I have to peel him away from me."

She continued on to say, "He gets hit in the hallway. He's been coming home saying he's been hit in the stomach. I had a report from the bus driver that we was punched in the stomach. He comes home with black and blues."

She says her second-grader copes with anxiety.

"I can't take him out in public without him having a panic attack," Ortiz-Kopylec said. "He doesn't want to go to events with other children."

She says she's gone to the Clinton Avenue School every month since November to address this, four times this month alone.

They ironed out a plan for Orlando, so he would eat lunch alone with his friends.

The School district says the principal believed the family was satisfied by the plan, but Orlando's mom says it backfired.

"They don't get followed the way they're supposed to," Ortiz-Kopylec said. "Instead they seclude my son like he's the problem, and then it just makes matters worse with the other students."

So, she called a parent advocate at the Board of Education. They told her about bullying forms and encouraged her to write down the accounts.

Ortiz-Kopylec says the school isn't following their own rules and won't give her one.

"I've asked for it four times and every time that I asked for it, my concern was ignored," she said

New Haven policy states the school fills out their own incident report and bullying forms are available for parents.

In this case, the district says, "She (the principal) filled out an incident report, which is on file at the school. We apologize for any confusion and would be happy to provide the parent with a form."

The school district sent us the link to their bullying policy , which has the form in it.