JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Mandarin Middle School mother says her son was violently attacked during P.E. class last week \u2014 just weeks after recovering from heart surgery.<\/p>\n
She says another student slammed a book bag into his face last Wednesday, knocking him unconscious and leaving him with serious injuries.<\/p>\n
The mother also claims that weeks earlier, another student attacked her son, and the only suggestion she says she received from the principal was to pull him out of P.E. and put him into art class instead.<\/p>\n
Red marks on his forehead. An injury around his eye. A knot on his head.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n A doctor\u2019s note confirms a concussion \u2014 injuries the mother says should never have happened in gym class.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was hysterically crying,\u201d said mom Lauren Lowery.<\/p>\n Lowery says her sixth-grade son was left shaken and injured after what she describes as a violent encounter in gym class.<\/p>\n \u201cMy son sat with a friend and asked the student, can you move your book bag? The child said no. And walked away,\u201d Lowery said.<\/p>\n When her son nudged the bag aside, she says the other student snapped.<\/p>\n \u201cThe student saw him do it. Picked up the bag\u2026 like if you were swinging a golf club full speed, took the bag and hit him in the face. When that happened\u2026 his head hit behind him. The walls are cinderblock,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n Lowery says the other student\u2019s criminal charge doesn\u2019t reflect the damage done to her 12-year-old son.<\/p>\n \u201cThey charged the child with simple battery, based off of the pictures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n But she says those pictures don\u2019t paint the full story.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is what my child\u2019s injuries are. This is why I feel they should be upgraded,\u201d Lowery said.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n According to a Duval County Public Schools police report, the student faces a misdemeanor simple battery charge. Lowery believes that it should be upgraded to felony assault.<\/p>\n She says she\u2019s frustrated by the lack of answers from the district and its police.<\/p>\n \u201cI have personally lost sleep over worry, because that\u2019s what you do as a parent. You worry about everything,\u201d Lowery said.<\/p>\n Action News Jax reached out to DCPS with a series of questions, including what discipline the student faces both academically and criminally.<\/p>\n DCPS emailed a statement that states:<\/p>\n \u201cThank you for reaching out. Violence has no place on our campuses, and we are aware of a report from school leadership that a student allegedly struck another student on campus. District protocol was followed, including immediate contact with the families of both students involved,\u00a0providing immediate assistance to the victim, and submitting an incident report.\u00a0In this case, school staff escorted the alleged victim to student services to assist in contacting their parents. While we cannot disclose specific disciplinary details, we can share that we take these incidents very seriously. Acts of violence like this can result in both school disciplinary consequences and possible criminal charges.\u201d<\/p>\n Lowery says she plans to keep pressing for tougher charges, hoping no other child has to go through what her son did.<\/p>\n DCPS did not answer Action News Jax\u2019s specific questions on whether the principal suggested moving the student from PE to art class following the incident.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>] <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 A Mandarin Middle School mother says her son was violently attacked during P.E. class last…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":216781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-216780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fl","10":"tag-florida","11":"tag-jacksonville","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115182702711750189","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}