A student chef was put in deep freeze by cruel classmates when a teacher left their culinary class unsupervised, according to a lawsuit.
Jovan Ortiz was in class at the Food and Finance High School on West 50th Street in Manhattan when the instructor told him to put food away in the freezer, his mom, Wajana Vallecillo, said.
But as Ortiz, 17, was working, three classmates came by the commercial walk-in freezer, slammed the door shut, turned off the lights and taunted him with large kitchen knives, he said in his Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit.
The teacher was in another room for more than 20 terrifying minutes as the trio tortured Ortiz, who called his mom begging for help, said Vallecillo, who recorded the call.
The mom could hear the bullies laughing in the background, telling Ortiz, “You ain’t getting out,” she said.
“It was terrifying,” Vallecillo said. “My son’s traumatized over this.”
She called the school and got administrators and the teacher to free Ortiz, who has since been diagnosed with PTSD.
The school should never have allowed the kids to be unsupervised, according to the negligence claim against the city and the Education Department.
The abusive classmates were arrested but sentenced only to community service, said the angry mom, who said her son was relentlessly bullied at school after the attack by students who thought he had “snitched.”
Culinary work is Ortiz’s passion, his mom said. “This is his life. He just wants safety,” she said.
The family is seeking unspecified damages. The city said it will review the claim.