N.J. mom beaten unconscious by school bully who threatened her son in hate crime, lawyer says

A Passaic County woman was attacked and knocked unconscious after complaining to a school vice principal about three students who threatened her son and told him “to go back to Mexico,” the woman’s attorney said Tuesday.

Beronica Ruiz, 35, of Passaic, was attacked June 19 at Lexington Avenue and Monroe Street as she pushed a stroller with her 1-year-old baby inside and her 12-year-old son walking with her, according to her attorney, Daniel Santiago of Clifton.

“This was a horrific and brutal attack,” Santiago told NJ Advance Media. “It takes a certain level of insanity to brutally attack a mother with a stroller and leave her for dead.”

The woman was hospitalized for two days after a 13-year-old student – one of three who had been taunting her son – “essentially jumped my client,” Santiago said.

She suffered a fractured eye socket, bruises and a bloodied eye that remained red for days.

The day before the attack, Ruiz’s son endured taunts in the cafeteria of Passaic Gifted and Talented Academy School No. 20, according to the attorney.

“They were chanting, ‘Mexicans should go back behind the wall,’” Santiago said. When the boy countered, “We all come from immigrants,” the bullies threatened violence, Santiago said.

When the boy reported the incident to school officials, they sequestered him for the remainder of the day, either in an office or classroom, Santiago said.

But nobody called the child’s parents, he said. When the boy went home that afternoon, he told his mother about the threats and said he was afraid to go back to school.

Courtesy of Daniel Santiago Ruiz, 35, in a photo taken at a hospital after her brutal attack.

The mother then went to the school and complained to a vice principal and demanded to know why school officials had not informed her about the threats of violence, Santiago said.

The vice principal admitted to the mother that he should have called them but that he had become busy with other matters, Santiago said.

“That’s a woefully inadequate response,” Santiago said. “'My bad’ is not a good excuse for not calling (the parents), not telling them.”

To make matters worse, school officials did not immediately discipline the attacker. Instead, they told the mother that the attacker “had just as much right to an education as her son,” Santiago said.

It was only after the boy’s father, Alfonso Vasquez, contacted Passaic Mayor Hector Lora that the teen bully was suspended, Santiago said.

School officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.

Lora sent NJ Advance Media the following statement:

“As both a father and a husband I am outraged over this incident. As mayor, these are things you wish would never occur in your city or anywhere. This incident is being taken extremely seriously. I have met with and spoken personally with the family. I have met with my chief of police, local officials and school administration as well as board members to make sure there is accountability and that this family receives justice as well as any help and resources we can provide. The details regarding what led up to this incident remain under investigation. However, one thing is very clear: what occurred to this mother is unacceptable and whatever we need to do as a city, as a community, to do better by our families and our children, we will do.”

The mayor said the student has been suspended from school and charged with assault. A spokesman for the Passaic County Prosecutor’s Office said the suspect was charged as a juvenile with one count each of aggravated assault and simple assault, and released to the custody of his parents ahead of a Family Court appearance.

The attorney said he plans to file suit against the school on behalf of the family, saying “lawsuits are the only thing that large institutions listen to.”

Courtesy of Daniel Santiago Ruiz in a photo taken at the hospital shortly after she was attacked.

Anthony G. Attrino may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TonyAttrino. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.