Teen says he was blinded by bullies

A Brooklyn eighth-grader says he's blind in one eye after he was attacked by bullies shouting anti-gay epithets in a school cafeteria.

"I can't see from my right eye -- nothing," Kardin Ulysse, 14, said Tuesday. "And I want to see."

Wearing a red baseball cap, with his eye covered by a white patch under glasses, the teen appeared briefly at a news conference in the offices of his attorney, Sanford Rubenstein. The lawyer handed out copies of the formal "notice of claim" preceding a $15 million lawsuit against the city Department of Education alleging negligent supervision.

Pierre Ulysse, the boy's father, described the June 5 assault on his son in the cafeteria of the Roy H. Mann Junior High School in the Bergen Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn.

About 8 a.m., before classes started, Kardin was approached by two boys who "were kicking him, punching [him] in the face many, many times," with one holding him down by his arms, Pierre Ulysse said. Kardin tried to escape but was pinned down in another part of the cafeteria.

The father said his son has repeatedly been taunted in past months with homophobic language, though he's not gay.

The youth did nothing to provoke the assaults, his father said, but "I guess they just don't like him, somehow." Authorities are investigating the incident to determine whether it might be classified as a hate crime.

Department of Education spokeswoman Marge Feinberg said Tuesday two students had been arrested and face disciplinary action.