PHOENIX — When Ruben Almanza picked up his son from school last week, he could tell something was wrong.
“He was covering his eye and he had tears in his eyes,” Almanza said.
His 10-year-old son, Ruben Almanza II, attends Legacy Traditional School Laveen. When Ruben took his hand away from his face, Almanza said his son had a black and swollen eye with a half inch cut underneath. The fifth grader told his dad that a classmate hit him in the face with a plastic bin inside the classroom.
“I felt helpless like I couldn’t be there for him,” Almanza said.
Almanza called Ruben’s mom, Marissa Vasquez, and told her about the situation.
“It was a scary feeling,” Vasquez said.
She rushed Ruben to the emergency room to get it checked out. Vasquez said the student who attacked her son has bullied him in the past.
“Two weeks prior, the kid had body slammed [Ruben] to the ground,” she said.
Both Vasquez and Almanza were upset with how the teacher handled the attack. Claiming they gave Ruben an ice pack and then sent him out the door since school had just ended.
“Nobody accessed his eye, nobody sent him to the nurse,” Vasquez said.
The parents spoke with the school’s principal about what happened. They claim they were told there would be “severe” consequences for the student’s actions.
Vasquez believed that to mean the child would be put in another class or expelled. However, a few days later Ruben told them the student was back in class.
An official with Legacy Traditional Schools sent 12News a statement writing administration is aware of the physical altercation and conducted an investigation. They also wrote that appropriate consequences were given to the student, but could not legally disclose what those consequences were.
Consequences that both parents believe were not severe enough.
“I’m not saying throw the book at him, but I would think a little more than three days,” Almanza said.
“This child used a physical object and cut our child’s eye open. That’s not a three day suspension,” Vasquez said.
Now, they said Ruben is afraid to go to class and Vasquez is working on transferring him to a different school, given the bullying and the school’s response.
“This school needs to take full accountability for neglecting my son in a time of need and then for not giving the correct consequences for a child who assaulted our child,” she said.
VERSIÓN EN ESPAÑOL: Un niño de quinto grado fue atacado por un compañero en una escuela de Laveen y el menor terminó en la sala de emergencias
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