Slay ruled in Bx. death during nab

A BULLIED Bronx third-grader won a safety transfer to a new school on Tuesday, after the Daily News reported allegations that another student’s mom hauled him out of his school cafeteria by the neck.

City Education Department officials said they also slapped the mauling mom with a letter stating that she can’t visit the school campus except for official business.

But they still won’t reveal the woman’s identity.

Sanavya Hodges said her child, Jalen Swinton, 8, was eating breakfast peacefully at Public School 146 on April 27 when another mother burst in and dragged him off to the principal’s office.

The experience left Jalen with a strained back and emotional trauma so severe that he wouldn’t return to class.

After the incident, Hodges tried to get him a transfer to a new school, but her requests went nowhere until The News published Jalen’s story online Monday night and in print Tuesday.

As early as this week, Jalen may start class at Public School 140, another public elementary school in his neighborhood. Officials just need to finish his paperwork, his mom said.

Hodges said she’s grateful for the transfer. But she still wants justice for her son.

“I was traumatized with him,” said Hodges, 39. “He wants to be in school, so he’s going to a new school. It makes me feel better that he’s not going to the old one.”

Hodges said both Jalen and officials at the school in Morrisania told her the story of the April 27 incident, but school staffers won’t say who the aggressor is, and Jalen doesn’t know who assailed him. School officials said police responded to the school after the incident, but no arrests were made and the cops say they have no record of matter. Hodges said Jalen woke up with a stiff neck the day after the incident and Hodges took him for treatment at St. Barnabas Hospital. The upset mom said PS 146 Principal Ronald Laurent won’t give her any information about the woman who grabbed her son. Laurent hasn’t responded to The News’ requests for comment. Hodges said she’s extremely frustrated that officials won’t tell her what’s going on.

“My son is having nightmares,” she said. “He doesn’t want to go outside because he might see the woman who did this to him. But I don’t know who she is.”

National Action Network Crisis Director the Rev. Kevin McCall, who has been advocating for Hodges, said school officials should be more transparent about what happened.

“We are meeting with (Education Department) officials to make sure that procedures are put in place to prevent this from happening again,” McCall said.

Education Department spokeswoman Miranda Barbot wouldn’t say why school officials won’t identity the adult involved in the matter.

“This incident was immediately and properly addressed by the school,” Barbot said. “Safety always comes first, and the family has been provided with ongoing support.” THE DEATH of a Bronx man in police custody after a violent struggle with cops has been ruled a homicide, officials from the city’s medical examiner’s office revealed Tuesday.

An autopsy showed Dwayne Pritchett, 48, died as a result of a “physical struggle with police including neck compression.”

A handcuffed Pritchett tried to grab a cop’s gun in his Kingsbridge Heights apartment on Jan. 28, authorities said. Medics took him to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Allen, where he could not be saved.

Cops found drug paraphernalia and a gun in his bedroom, sources said.

The autopsy revealed Pritchett had drugs in his system. He also suffered from cardiovascular disease and had some food stuck in his airway, according to the report.

The cops who took part in the fatal struggle remained on full duty Tuesday.

The NYPD’s Force Investigation Division is looking into Pritchett’s death, cops said.

Pritchett family attorney Sanford Rubenstein said the neck compression finding was “significant.”

“(It) must be considered by the attorney general’s office as they conduct their criminal investigation,” Rubenstein said.