S.C. v. New York City Department of Education

The plaintiff S.C. attended I.S. 59 in Queens for the sixth, seventh, and eighth grades. Elmer Hammond, a paraprofessional employed at the school, was S.C.’s sixth-grade music teacher. Hammond also worked with at-risk students, such as S.C., and he began regularly eating lunch with S.C. in the chorus room, sometimes paying for S.C’s lunch.

In January 2007, during S.C.’s eighth grade year, an argument with his mother caused him to run away from home, and he called Hammond, who had someone bring him to his home. There, Hammond talked to S.C. for a period of four to six hours before S.C.’s mother…