Pittsburgh Public Schools failed to protect Brashear student from beating, lawsuit says

A student who was severely beaten by another at Brashear High School last year is suing Pittsburgh Public Schools, saying that officials there failed to protect him even though they knew he’d been attacked by the same person three times before.

According to the lawsuit, Ny’Hier Williams was savagely attacked on Jan. 21, 2022, in a second-floor hallway.

The complaint, filed in federal court, alleges that Williams was picked up and slammed headfirst into the ground, and that his attacker then stomped on his head five times before a school resource officer was able to stop the attack.

The incident was captured on video.

The lawsuit alleges that Williams suffered a major traumatic brain injury “that has derailed his life and will continue to plague him indefinitely into the future.”

The attack that day, the complaint said, followed a long history of unprovoked attacks by the same assailant.

Quincey Garland was charged with aggravated assault. According to the criminal complaint, it was the fourth incident between Garland and Williams.

Garland went to trial before Allegheny County Common Pleas Court Judge Randal B. Todd in August, and a jury found him not guilty.

According to the lawsuit, the school district was aware of the history of unprovoked attacks and took inadequate steps to protect Williams, including trying to move Garland to a different school.

Days after the attack, Brashear High School Principal Kimberly Safran was placed on non-disciplinary paid administrative leave pending a district review of the incident.

Following a public hearing, Safran was suspended for 15 days. According to court records, the district sustained charges against Safran for being “persistently negligent” and “willfully violating school laws,” and being “incompetent.”

Ira Weiss, an attorney for the district, said Tuesday he had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.

“We will review it and take appropriate steps,” Weiss said.

According to the complaint, the first incident between Garland and Williams, which was captured in cellphone video, occurred on Sept. 8, 2021, while Williams was waiting for the bus after school.

According to the lawsuit, Garland attempted to provoke Williams, who refused to fight. Garland attacked Williams anyway, the complaint continued, striking him in the head and knocking him to the ground.

Williams was taken to the hospital and diagnosed with a concussion, the complaint said.

The school district suspended four students involved that day.

When Williams’ mother, Chata Williams, questioned officials about why her son was suspended, they “took the unsupported position that the incident was the result of ‘gang activity,’” the lawsuit said.

The day Williams returned to school, on Sept. 14, 2021, the lawsuit said that Garland immediately sought him out and attacked him again, spitting in his face.

The district suspended Williams again for “inciting melee,” the complaint said.

Chata Williams asked for a meeting of the students and their parents, as well as the principal, but at the Sept. 29, 2021, meeting, the lawsuit said, the principal was not present. Garland’s guardian also was not there, the complaint said, because his guardian said he should handle it himself because he was already 18 years old.

Although his mother clearly told officials her son no longer felt safe at Brashear, no safety plan was developed, the lawsuit said.

Garland attacked Williams for a third time on Dec. 15, 2021, when Williams went to the restroom at school.

That incident was also captured on cellphone video.

The district, again, suspended Williams, who was taken to the hospital, the lawsuit said, even though a school resource officer filed charges against Garland.

After that incident, Chata Williams told the district she was unwilling to send her son back to Brashear without assurances he would be safe. District officials told her Garland would not be returning to the school, and the process to move him elsewhere had begun.

But when Williams returned to school in January 2022 after the holidays, he was “surprised and terrified” to see Garland there, the lawsuit said. It alleges that the district inadvertently allowed Garland to return to school.

Chata Williams went to the school and spoke with the vice principal who assured her staff could keep her son safe, the lawsuit said. Further, they said Garland was only there temporarily while his paperwork was processed for a different school.

Still, Williams’ mother decided to keep him home until she had further assurances from the school.

On Jan. 20, the lawsuit said, school officials told Chata Williams her son should return to school and that they would keep him safe.

He was attacked the next day.

Williams suffered a traumatic brain injury, post-concussion syndrome; slowed motor activity; chronic pain, dizziness and balance problems and related symptoms.

The lawsuit, which includes due process claims for injury as a result of a state-created danger, alleges that the attack was foreseeable.