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NEW ORLEANS (WGNO)— There’s new information on a story we told you about earlier this week. A boy was injured when a teenage girl threw scissors at him at Langston Hughes Academy on Wednesday.
WGNO’s Kenny Lopez had an exclusive interview with Samira Patterson, the mother of the 12-year-old boy who was left with lacerations on the back of his head. Ultimately, Patterson says this horrible incident really made her question how safe her son is at school.
“Just blood everywhere,” Patterson explained. “All over his face and clothing. It looks as if red dye was dumped all over his head.”
According to the New Orleans Police Department, the incident happened while Patterson’s son and the other student, a 14-year-old girl, were in detention. The girl was later arrested.
The NOPD says the boy was slashed with scissors during an argument after the victim demanded the girl leave him alone. However, Langston Hughes is a FirstLine Charter School and the CEO of FirstLine says although police say the student was slashed, that’s not the case. Patterson disagrees.
“She told him that if you say my name again, I will get up and stab you,” Patterson said.
Regardless, one thing remains clear: Patterson is furious at the way she says her son was treated by the school following the incident.
“Once I got there, they rolled him out to the front door in a wheelchair with a garbage bag full of ice on his head,” Patterson added. “I asked him to lift it up and there was blood still gushing from his head.”
This mother feels the school downplayed the situation and should’ve taken her son’s injuries more seriously.
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“I feel like EMS should’ve been called. I did not know the severity of his injuries until I got there,” she said.
Patterson picked up her son and immediately took him to Ochsner where the doctors said he had traumatic lacerations. Her son’s doing okay now, but had to get two stitches in his head and is complaining of headaches.
IMAGES: New Orleans ‘furious’ with school after son left with traumatic lacerations during detention
“He was traumatized and scared of all the blood, and to have him sitting there bleeding out until I got there to pick him up. I’m very angry. I’m furious. I feel like they don’t care,” Patterson said.
In a statement, FirstLine Schools officials discuss the incident:
“The staff at Langston Hughes Academy followed all proper protocols in place for this incident. We understand the parent believed we should have called EMS. We reviewed proper nursing protocols for this injury, and our nurse did follow all proper procedures according to the Clinical Guidelines for Scalp Injury as referenced in the Clinical Guidelines for School Nurses. We also followed the proper protocol of calling our Community Resource Officer, who then made the decision to arrest the other student involved in the incident.”
“If the school is going to cover it up, then how can we as parents protect our children and help them and not expose what’s really going on in the schools?” Patterson said.
Patterson said she is talking to lawyers about holding the school accountable for the way she believes they handled the situation.
As for the mother of the 14-year-old girl involved, she declined to be interviewed on camera, but on the phone, said that she is concerned about her daughter’s reputation going forward based on the arrest report.
We’re being told that she will be expelled from school.
