A 13-year-old boy may have a leg amputated at an Atlanta hospital as a result of an injury he sustained from a school contract employee, the boy’s attorney said Tuesday.
The injury happened in September when the student was "thrown to the floor" multiple times at a Columbus school, the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer reported.
The amputation is scheduled for Tuesday night at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston, attorney Renee Tucker, who represents the boy and his mother, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Egleston officials confirmed that the boy is at the hospital, but they declined to discuss his condition, citing privacy regulations.
The boy was enrolled in the district’s AIM program when the incident allegedly happened at Edgewood Student Services Center. The program is for students who have been temporarily removed from their regular school because of violations of behavior rules, the Ledger-Enquirer reported.
A Muscogee County School District spokeswoman issued a statement on the incident.
“We extend our thoughts and prayers to our student who is undergoing medical treatment and to his family,” spokeswoman Valerie Fuller said. “We are committed to conducting a thorough review of the alleged incident at the AIM/Edgewood Student Services Center to determine all of the facts.
“The person involved in the alleged incident at AIM/Edgewood Student Services Center is not an employee of the Muscogee County School District. Bryant Mosley was provided by Mentoring and Behavioral Services, a contract service provider, to the Muscogee County School District. Mr. Mosley is not presently providing services to the Muscogee County School District.”
The boy was trying to leave the classroom for the main office so he could call his mother to pick him up when the alleged incident happened, Tucker said. The contract employee stopped the boy and slammed him to the floor to prevent him from leaving, Tucker said. The student said he was thrown to the floor a second time when he tried to leave again.
The district’s statement said, “It is our understanding that there were issues concerning the safety of the child and others in the room, which called for the use of restraint per state guidance. Physical restraint is allowed in Georgia public schools and educational programs in those situations in which the student is an immediate danger to himself or others and the student is not responsive to less intensive behavioral interventions including verbal directives or other de-escalation techniques.”
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