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This story was updated after Monday’s deadline to include a statement from Indianapolis Public Schools.
A new lawsuit has been filed by a parent on behalf of her child against Indianapolis Public Schools and one of its former teachers, accusing the teacher of orchestrating a “fight club” environment in his classroom by allegedly encouraging and recording videos of students fighting or being beaten by other students.
“This case is about accountability. A six-year-old child reported serious harm over and over again. Her family pleaded for help. And IPS did nothing. When a school fails to act in the face of such serious and ongoing danger, it forfeits the public’s trust and fails the community it serves,” Tammy Meyer, an attorney with Metzger Rosta LLP who is representing the plaintiff in the case, said in a press release about the lawsuit.
The civil lawsuit comes weeks after the school corporation and another parent agreed to dismiss a similar lawsuit against the corporation and Julious Johnican, a former teacher at George Washington Carver School No. 87.
According to this new complaint, filed on May 2 in Marion Superior Court, victim “K.D.” was a six-year-old student with special needs who was in Johnican’s classroom during the 2023-2024 school year.
The plaintiff, Kiya Isom, identified as K.D.’s mother, said that within the first few weeks of school, K.D. began coming home from school with visible injuries, including scratches, bruises, and other marks.
K.D. allegedly told her mom that the injuries were from the “aggressive nature of the classroom.” She said that she and other students were pushed, kicked, thrown to the floor, and punched while at school, according to court documents.
The child reported multiple incidents to her mother, the lawsuit states.
While the abuse was sometimes at the hands of other students, staff members allegedly stood idly by while it happened, and some of the incidents were encouraged and instigated by Johnican, according to the lawsuit.
The plaintiff said she met with Johnican on at least five occasions during the first eight weeks of school to discuss her daughter’s injuries. Johnican allegedly indicated that K.D. was not telling her mother the truth and was potentially saying things to get attention.
In September 2023, while under the supervision of Johnican, K.D. was allegedly pushed off the monkey bars and landed on a metal bar. The school nurse didn’t contact the plaintiff about the injuries until hours after it happened, according to court documents.
The injuries were so severe that K.D. had to have surgery, the complaint states.
After the incident, the plaintiff met with school administrators and demanded the incident be investigated, but the incident report allegedly underscored the severity of what happened.
Johnican resigned from his position in November 2023, but K.D. continued to be bullied, according to the complaint.
Eventually, the plaintiff said, she had no choice but to remove her child from the school.
“Indianapolis Public Schools strongly disagrees with the claims put forward in this lawsuit. The safety and security of our students and staff has been and will continue to be our top priority. Because this is an active lawsuit, we will not comment further,” Marc Ransford, Media Relations Coordinator for IPS, said in a statement to The Indiana Lawyer.
Last May, the state charged Johnican with neglect of a dependent, a felony, for allegedly encouraging one student to attack another while recording the fight on his phone, Chalkbeat Indiana reported.
That incident was detailed in an April 2024 lawsuit where a mother accused Johnican of allowing and encouraging students to abuse her seven-year-old son, who has a disability.
The lawsuit was dismissed on April 18, 2025. IPS and an attorney for Johnican did not respond to Chalkbeat’s request for comment on the dismissal, and attorneys for the plaintiff said they could not comment on the resolution in a particular case.
This lawsuit accuses the defendants, which includes the Board of School Commissioners for the City of Indianapolis and the principal and vice principal of the school, of gross negligence, failure to report suspected abuse, and deliberate indifference to the safety of a child with known vulnerabilities.
The plaintiff is seeking compensatory, actual, and punitive damages and requests a jury trial.
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