Teacher ‘went off’: Brooklyn high schooler recounts choking incident

The 15-year-old Brooklyn high school sophomore allegedly choked by a teacher told the Daily News he was attacked without warning and thought he was going to pass out.
“I couldn’t breathe, so it felt like a long time,” Hamou Aitmohamedamer Jr. said. “I felt like I was going to faint. People were screaming for him to stop. Then I finally pushed him off me and people rushed me out of the classroom.”
The teen’s father, Hamou Aitmohamedamer Sr., 60, said the teacher, Gary Zeng, clearly is not fit to be in a classroom.
“It’s very disturbing that a teacher did this,” the father said. “I never expected I would send my son to school and he would be attacked by a teacher.”
The family’s lawyer, Scott Rynecki, on Tuesday filed a $5.5 million notice of claim on behalf of the teen and his father, accusing Zeng, 27, of malicious assault and the city and Department of Education of negligence and failure to supervise.
“We don’t have any discovery material yet but we need to see his personnel file, what his experience is, what sort of training he has,” Rynecki siad. “Why would someone left in charge of children attack children?”
The incident happened Oct. 29 at the High School of Sports Managment on Benson Ave. in Bath Beach.
The student said he and four other boys went to Zeng’s classroom, inside which other students were hanging out on their lunch break while Zeng served as monitor.
Police at the time said Zeng didn’t want Hamou there because they were late. But Hamou said, for reasons not clear to him, Zeng came only at him, grabbing him around his neck with both hands and pressing hard enough to leave marks.
“I have no clue why,” Hamou said. “He just went off.”
The father, an Uber driver, rushed to the school when his son later called him and insisted medics take Hamou to the hospital to be treated for bruises.
Hamou said he and Zeng had no prior issues. Zeng, police said, admitted to officers that he “lost his cool and shouldn’t have done it.”
He later plead not guilty, though, after being charged with strangulation, criminal obstruction of breathing, endangering the welfare of a child, misdemeanor assault and harassment.
Zeng, according to the DOE, has been transferred to an assignment in which he does not interact with students. The agency would not comment on the notice of claim but called the alleged behavior “completely unacceptable” and said it would move to fire Zeng if he is convicted.
A spokesman for the city’s Law Department said the claim will be reviewed. Zeng could not be reached for comment and his lawyer didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Hamou, at the insistence of his parents, was transferred to another school.
“I’m still a little traumatized,” Hamou said. “I sometimes can’t sleep at night.”