GOODYEAR, Ariz. — A West Valley mother is calling for stricter bullying consequences after she said her son was attacked at school by another student.
Kristina Guglielmo said her 11-year-old son, a sixth grader at Westar Elementary, is still experiencing medical issues more than two weeks after the incident.
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"The principal called me and said there was an altercation," Guglielmo said. "It was unprovoked, and he was assaulted."
The student, an 11-year-old girl, allegedly punched the boy several times.
Guglielmo said she took her son to the emergency room with cuts and swelling all over his face.
"He said I didn't want to defend myself because she's a girl, but when I watched the video, I realized he wouldn't even be able to defend himself," Guglielmo said.
Guglielmo said the girl was suspended for eight days, which she doesn't believe was severe enough.
"You can't just bully kids and get away with it. It should be a no tolerance policy," Guglielmo said.
Liberty Elementary School District told 12News the length of the girl's suspension was at the higher end of their discipline matrix, which is approved by the elected governing board.
A spokesperson sent a statement on Wednesday saying in part the district "is fully committed to a safe learning environment that is supported by a transparent and fair discipline process."
Liberty Elementary School District Governing Board President Michael Todd resigned following the incident.
Todd said he "lost faith in the leadership of the district" in a post on Facebook.
12News reached out to Todd for comment on his decision to resign, but did not immediately get a response.
Goodyear Police confirmed they're also investigating the incident. Their department submitted assault charges to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office.
12News reached out to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office about the situation, but did not immediately get a response.
Guglielmo said the girl is back at school, and her son is terrified.
She wants the student who allegedly hurt her son to be expelled.
"He shouldn't be the one to have to leave. He's a great kid. He gets great grades. He's never had any type of disciplinary action and I feel like this student really needs a higher level of care before she hurts someone else," Guglielmo said.
Since publishing this story, 12News has spoken to the other child’s family who said that this incident was provoked and the girl has been subjected to bullying.
The district sent an updated statement on Friday.
A spokesperson for the district said parents had since informed them of past disciplinary actions involving the girl and the superintendent reopened a review of her file.
The statement said the district did find records that would have impacted the severity of the discipline based on the governing board approved discipline matrix.
“Our school principal earnestly made their disciplinary decision based on the information the school and district had in our system at the time of the incident. However, after we were presented with additional information from concerned parents, we immediately set about reviewing our record system and files and found that this offending student did indeed have previous incidents during the tenure of the previous principal that would have impacted the severity of the initial consequence. Bottom line, we erred and now are working with the school leadership to finalize additional discipline within the governing board approved discipline matrix for the offending student and I apologize to our school community that we did not get this right initially. We will work to make sure our discipline record systems are certainly better next time," Liberty Elementary School District Superintendent Cort Monroe said.
Guglielmo told 12News she did not have a comment regarding the update from the district.
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