A Florida mother said her 5-year-old son was traumatized after a teacher struck him with a ruler leaving him with a bloody gash on his forehead.
The incident reportedly happened at Aspire Preparatory Academy, a K-5 charter school in Miami Gardens, Florida, last month.
“November 19, I received a message from the teacher telling me that he was injured,” the child’s mother told 7News.
The teacher told the mother that her child hurt himself with a pencil, but on the way to the hospital, the 5-year-old told his mom an entirely different story.
“I asked him what happened, and he let me know his teacher did hit him with a ruler,” the child’s mother said. “He did admit he was playing around, and the teacher was yelling at him and frustrated because he was not listening.”
During his hospital visit, the boy had to get three stitches to treat his wound.
“This was a gash. This wasn’t just a hit. This wasn’t just a little, minor cut that you can put a Band-Aid. This was a deep cut that required him to get stitches,” his mother said.
The parent reached out to the school to get an honest account of how her son ended up with the injury, but after two weeks of inquiries, she never heard back. Now, she’s turned to Miami Gardens Police for help and filed a report with the agency.
“This is not normal, this is not supposed to happen. He was traumatized,” she said. “No matter how frustrated you are, you shouldn’t take it out on that child. It could’ve been his eye; it was so close to his eye. Then he would’ve been blind for the rest of his life. Then what?”
The boy’s mother said that the teacher is still working at the academy and that she withdrew her son from the school.
“It’s scary because you send your child to school for eight hours of the day thinking that your child is in good hands.”
Atlanta Black Star has reached out to the school for comment on this incident.
