"I just seen all of these men coming out of that truck, pointing their guns and a taser gun at my son and myself," said Andreina Mejia, the boy's mother. "I looked at my son's reaction and saw that he was scared. He didn't know what was going on."
The encounter happened on Aug. 11 as Mejia and her son sat in their car outside Arleta High School. Immigration officers stormed into the area to arrest who the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified as Cristian Alexander Vasquez-Alvarenga, a Salvadoran national and suspected MS-13 pledge.
Mejia and her son were pulled from their vehicle and separated. The boy was handcuffed for several minutes as his mom tried to explain to the officers that he has speech and hearing disabilities. The family chose not to share the teen's name.
"Imagine a 15-year-old with special needs being subjected to firearms on his way to school," said attorney Christian Contreras, who is one of the attorneys representing the boy and his family.
The attorneys filed a tort claim against the federal government for false arrest, false imprisonment and battery.
But what makes this case even more shocking is that the DHS released a statement about the arrest, saying the boy's family worked with agents to arrest a known member of the MS-13 street gang.
The family and their attorneys vehemently deny that claim and say it puts the family's safety in jeopardy.
"This is a pure falsehood that clearly they are trying to sic these gang members on this family, when that is totally false," said Michael Carrillo, another attorney representing the family.
In the statement, DHS also slammed the family's legal action, writing, "This is a case study of billboard law firms trying to turn family resemblance into racial animus to collect clicks, clout, and cash."
But Meija says even though her son was released a short time later, he's scarred from the experience.
"No kid should have to go through what my son went through," she said. "He says he has nightmares. He doesn't want to go to school. Every day I have to wake him up, and it's just so hard for him."
Attorneys say LAUSD has surveillance video of the whole encounter. They are asking the school district to release the video.