NEWPORT NEWS, Va. - An ankle boot and several bruises dot the legs and arms of an autistic Warwick High School student. His mother said the injuries are from another special needs student who attacked him in the school cafeteria.
"This child pushes my child in a booth and crawls on top of him and pins him down by his knees. Starts batting him in the top of the head. The teacher walked right past it," said the student's mother who did not want to be identified.
The mother provided the description of the incident to News 3 after watching surveillance footage at the school. A Newport News School System spokesperson confirmed that parents of both the children involved watched the tape. They also confirmed that in the video there are two adults and a teacher's assistant present who do not intervene at any point of the incident.
The school spokesperson explained that the employees believed the boys were just horse playing and not seriously trying to hurt one another.
The boy's mother says the adults not intervening put her child and all the other students in the cafeteria in danger.
"If someone would have stepped in when this started my son wouldn't have been injured that is the truth," said the mother.
The student is currently out of school on medical leave and will remain out of school until his ankle heals. When he comes back the mother hopes there will be changes to the way employees supervise students. In the meantime she says she is trying to obtain a copy of the video, but says the school system will not provide her with one.
The school system says they are investigating the incident. At this time, no action has been taken against the employees who were in the cafeteria during the incident.
