Seattle Litigation Group represents the student referenced in the January 22, 2020 article written by Dahlia Bazzaz. As the former SPS student is a minor, and safety concerns remain, the student’s name will not be released, nor that of any family members. As the representative of this student, Seattle Litigation Group would like to inform the record that the article contained by Ms. Bazzaz does not contain all of the facts or legal concerns at issue. While the release to the wrong parent and subsequent near-deadly assault are central to the case, the scope is broader in terms of long-standing discriminatory practices that led to this incident. The student, a member of a minority racial group, with limited resources, and recipient of special needs services, was disregarded again and again despite his mother’s pleas for help and insistence he was being treated as a disciplinary problem rather than a student with special needs. A thorough review of evidence suggests that the school district relied upon the student’s father as a disciplinarian to intervene when the school and its teachers had insufficient resources to address his neurological disability. The father, a three-time convicted felon, was permitted to be in the classroom with the students. Further evidence exists that the district did not allocate sufficient resources to special needs students, that teachers were consistently overwhelmed and classrooms out of control. This student, despite demonstrating the capability to perform well in class, was regularly singled out for discipline. This type of systematic discrimination caused a lasting negative impact on this student’s self-esteem and the ability to be successful in future endeavors. Seattle Litigation Group hopes that the Seattle Public Schools will look closely into the history of this incident and reconsider its bias and actions. The student’s family values the settlement as an opportunity to move forward but feels deep pain for having never received the dignity of an apology now at the time the incident occurred.