photo courtesy of Fox 2 Detroit
According to Fox 2 Detroit, an 11-year-old girl’s family plans to sue Detroit’s Hope Academy elementary school after she was hit with a metal hockey stick in the head during an altercation between her substitute teacher and another student.
Cha’Kyra Thomas, the victim, now suffers from brain damage due to her head injury that occurred the week of February 23.
As reported by the outlet, the substitute teacher Jacqueline Brown was arguing with another student in her elementary school class. Thomas explained, “She was yelling and doing some cussing. The next thing I know, I feel something hard on the side of my head.”
The hockey stick hurled by Brown struck Thomas, leaving the young girl disoriented and with a bleeding gash on her head. She had to receive staples at the hospital and treatment for cranial damage resulting from the metal stick.
“Now I got to wear glasses, and I can’t remember stuff real well,” Thomas said, “It’s like flashes of what happened that day I got hit on my head, and I remember kids just laughing at me.”
Thomas’ family told the outlet that they plan to sue Brown, the district, Hope Academy, and as well as the staffing company that the substitute teacher came from on behalf of the 11-year-old girl.
The Thomas’ attorney, Jon Marko, expressed his shock and disappointment at the situation and how it was handled afterward. He said, “What kind of a teacher throws a hockey stick at a fifth-graders head? I mean, you obviously have to have something wrong with your head.” Marko continued to reveal that the administration didn’t immediately get help for Thomas after she was struck and that they even lost track of the young girl right after the incident. “
When the mother of this little girl gets to the school and is wondering, ‘Oh, my God, where’s my daughter?’ They couldn’t even find her. She was found wandering the hallways, confused, with blood running down her face.”
Brown has since been charged with the assault and has taken a plea agreement on all of her charges to serve two years probation, along with consistent attendance of anger management classes.