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Atty: Brooklyn 8th Grader Blinded After Pair Of Bullies Beat Him In School Cafeteria

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A New York City teenager said an attack by bullies at his school has left him unable to see in one eye.

Kardin Ulysse, a 14-year-old boy from Brooklyn, wears a patch over his right eye from two surgeries. He also needs to have surgery again because he said bullies robbed him of his sight in that eye, CBS 2's John Slattery reported.

"I can't see from my right eye at all -- nothing," said Ulysse.

WCBS 880's Peter Haskell With More On The Story

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Ulysse is an eighth grader at Roy Mann Junior High School in Bergen Beach, where his father said he was attacked by two seventh graders in the cafeteria on June 5.

"They were beating him, kicking him, punching him in the face many, many times," Pierre Ulysse said.

His attorney said the injury may have come from his eyeglasses breaking into his eye.

"The fact of the matter is he cannot see through that eye. He cannot see light, he cannot see dark -- he's blind in that eye," attorney Sanford Rubenstein said.

The family said the boy needs a cornea transplant and its success is questionable. Further, the family said the boy was hit with a barrage of anti-gay slurs during the attack.

"They called him a whole lot of names, transvestite, homo -- all kinds of stuff," Pierre Ulysse said.

The lawyer said the parents of a 13-year-old at the same school filed suit last year, charging a pattern of bullying. Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott said with the latest incident, school officials acted properly.

"We're gonna follow up and our staff is on top of it. Police are involved," Walcott said.

The attorney for Ulysse said even though he is not gay, because of what was said, there may be grounds to upgrade the boys' charges to a hate crime.

The family's attorney has put the city on notice that it plans to sue for $16 million.

Do you think the students will be charged with a hate crime?  Share your thoughts below...

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