Girl Beaten on Playground

Cyia · Sep 1, 2014

http://www.inquisitr.com/1445290/gi...-viciously-attacked-sustains-severe-injuries/

*WARNING* The images at the link are graphic, and depict a child beaten black-and-blue.

A 5-year-old girl was beat up on a playground at school so bad, that she sustained severe injuries. The incident happened Tuesday in Pascagoula, Mississippi.

That poor baby. They had to do CAT scans from the severity of the attack (which the girl says was another child kicking her in the side until she fell from the slide). The school is saying they can't prove anything because there was no teacher present when the attack happened.

Roe says the Pascagoula Police Department isn’t actively investigating the incident. The girl was beat up on the playground and it seems the matter is being handled as something kids do while at recess during school. The school is looking into the issue because this kind of “rough” treatment by kids can’t be tolerated.

If nothing else (and there should be much, much more...) the school should be liable for the lack of supervision with KINDERGARTEN students!

backslashbaby · Sep 1, 2014

The injuries look horrendous. I know some facial injuries can look horrendous because of the way the facial capillaries, etc, do, and I hope that's true for this poor little girl!

I don't know how the school says that no other children were involved if they didn't see it. If they interviewed the other kids, maybe the other kids lied to protect a friend?

OTOH, if the girl lied (somebody had to, if there were interviews) I guess it's possible that the injuries were from a bad faceplant. I don't know enough about that.

You'd think the police would at least try to interview folks, but I don't think we know anything of what the investigations have consisted of. I do hope everyone is taking it seriously. And the school should be paying for the medical care in any case! An employer would certainly have to.

Dennis E. Taylor · Sep 1, 2014

The problem is that if this was done by another student, I'll bet real money that this won't be the last incident. A five-year-old (+/-) with that kind of anger control issue and easy proclivity for violent solutions is going to go off again. And if the situation is similar, and the school hasn't done anything and has just brushed the incident under the carpet (which it looks like they are doing from here), they can very easily be considered criminally negligent. Possibly the police as well.

I can guarantee you, if I was the parent of the theoretical second victim, I would go on a vendetta using every legal means possible.

Prozyan · Sep 1, 2014

The child was at school, you would think the school would be responsible for her safety, whether this was done by another student or the child was doing something risky on the playground equipment and suffered a fall.

Unfortunately, I think the schools response to being asked to take responsibility would be something along the lines of banning recess or forbidding the children from the playground equipment. That would be much easier than asking a teacher to give up some of their break time to (gasp) actually monitor the students.

Plot Device · Sep 1, 2014

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benbradley · Sep 1, 2014

backslashbaby said:
The injuries look horrendous. I know some facial injuries can look horrendous because of the way the facial capillaries, etc, do, and I hope that's true for this poor little girl!

I don't know how the school says that no other children were involved if they didn't see it. If they interviewed the other kids, maybe the other kids lied to protect a friend?

OTOH, if the girl lied (somebody had to, if there were interviews) I guess it's possible that the injuries were from a bad faceplant. I don't know enough about that.

You'd think the police would at least try to interview folks, but I don't think we know anything of what the investigations have consisted of. I do hope everyone is taking it seriously. And the school should be paying for the medical care in any case! An employer would certainly have to.

In a case like this, the first (or next) people to interview the children should be psychologists with training and experience in child abuse cases.

There were the infamous cases of sexual abuse in day care centers:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day-care_sex-abuse_hysteria
I recall seeing a short part of an interview a parent or other personally involved person did with a child, an alleged victim:

"Did someone at day care hurt you?"

"No."

"Now you no it's a bad thing to lie, so tell the truth. Did someone at day care hurt you?"

With leading questions like that asked of the children, any possible "evidence" there was was spoiled, and it became virtually impossible to know what, if anything, happened.

Prozyan said:
The child was at school, you would think the school would be responsible for her safety, whether this was done by another student or the child was doing something risky on the playground equipment and suffered a fall.

No doubt there will be a lawsuit, and a judge or jury will decide for the school whether it's at fault.

Unfortunately, I think the schools response to being asked to take responsibility would be something along the lines of banning recess or forbidding the children from the playground equipment. That would be much easier than asking a teacher to give up some of their break time to (gasp) actually monitor the students.

The school could have cameras recording all playground activity so they could at least know what happened in situations like this, but yes, closing down playgrounds would be the school attorney's recommendation to prevent any possible future lawsuits.

Cyia · Sep 1, 2014

The only questionable detail I've seen is that the girl's eyes are clear white. I'm no doctor, but I've also never seen a black eye that severe without discoloration of the eye. I can't figure out how that happened.

The school should definitely need to turn over any camera footage - and you'd think they would want to. Finding the responsible party should at least split the culpability they're currently facing. I still can't imagine a school actually using the "no one was watching" excuse like it's a good thing!

Opty · Sep 1, 2014

Eh...I dunno. Maybe I'm jaded from the stories like this recently that turned out to be hoaxes or pathetic ploys for money and attention (KFC, most recently), but my bullshit detector is buzzing just a bit over this one.

Not saying it's not true. I'm just gonna remain skeptical (surprising, I know) until some credible info comes out.

c.e.lawson · Sep 1, 2014

Cyia said:
The only questionable detail I've seen is that the girl's eyes are clear white. I'm no doctor, but I've also never seen a black eye that severe without discoloration of the eye. I can't figure out how that happened.

The periorbital bruising and swelling she has could be what is referred to as raccoon eyes, which is a sign of basilar skull fracture. The symptom is not due to trauma of the eye itself, but from a skull fracture at the base of the skull. Here's a link to a pic to save you all from some of the more medically gruesome images you might see if you do an internet search.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raccoo...ral_periorbital_ecchymosis_(raccoon_eyes).jpg

From Stanford University School of Medicine Website:

http://neurosurgery.stanford.edu/patient_care/head_spine.html

Basilar skull fractures are a special subset of skull fractures. They occur as a result of trauma and affect the bottom of the skull near the ear canals or the nasal passages. Anterior basilar skull fractures involve the thin area of the skull where the olfactory (smelling) nerves exit into the nasal passages. Temporal basilar skull fractures involve the area of the skull where the vestibulocochlear (hearing and balance) and facial (facial muscles) nerves exit into the ear canal. Basilar skull fractures may involve dysfunction in the adjacent nerves with loss of smell, loss of hearing, imbalance, or weakness in the facial muscles. These skull fractures may tear the lining (dura) over the brain and result in a leakage of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) into the ear (otorrhea) or nose (rhinorrhea). They may also permit blood to leak behind the ear (Battle's sign) or around the eyes (Raccoon eyes). These fractures are diagnosed clinically by the presence, after trauma, of otorrhea, rhinorrhea, Battle's sign, or Raccoon eyes. CT also aids in the diagnosis.

Karen Junker · Sep 1, 2014

I have some thoughts. 1) Did the parent take the kid to a health care professional? If so, they may be a mandatory reporter and so a police or at least a Children's Protective Service investigation would be mandatory, wouldn't it? I wonder what state law is there. 2) Something like this happened to me when I was a kid and my mother was very young and did not know that you can hire an attorney on a contingency basis, so after the school just let the matter slide, she didn't know how to follow up (she did take me to the home of the kid who attacked me and confronted the mom, who laughed in her face and told her to get off the property). I wonder if this kid's parent may just not know that she can get legal help? Although sometimes in a high-profile case, an attorney will offer to help.

Opty · Sep 1, 2014

Karen Junker said:
I wonder if this kid's parent may just not know that she can get legal help? Although sometimes in a high-profile case, an attorney will offer to help.

She knows enough to have set up a Facebook page devoted solely to the assault in order to route people to a Gofundme.org page to solicit money from them, rather than aggressively pursuing this via legal means, which is more reason this whole thing smells fishy to me.

robeiae · Sep 1, 2014

Opty said:
She knows enough to have set up a Facebook page devoted solely to the assault in order to route people to a Gofundme.org page to solicit money from them, rather than aggressively pursuing this via legal means, which is more reason this whole thing this smells fishy to me.

Aaaaahhhh...yep.

Karen Junker · Sep 1, 2014

Oh, yeah -- the soliciting money with no attorney on board is fishy. I'd say that child needs to be interviewed carefully. But since I live in a state that is famous for convicting people of abuse based on the testimony of children who have later recanted or whatever...I wonder if that area has a resource for the kind of interviewer that wouldn't just make things more complicated?

kikazaru · Sep 1, 2014

I am completely astounded that there are not supervisory standards and the school did not provide supervision at recess. As someone who works in the school system and often does recess duties, this is incomprehensible to me. In fact the kids (from all classes) are NOT allowed outside until there is someone to supervise them. For three kindergarten classes there are a minimum of 3 recess duties and quite often more because some kids require one on one supervision, in addition very often some student "helpers" from the grade 6 classes assist as well. Even with all this monitoring kids will still get hurt - either accidentally or with encounters with other students.

But to not have anyone supervising? That is completely irresponsible and imo criminal.

milkweed · Sep 1, 2014

Cyia said:
The school is saying they can't prove anything because there was no teacher present when the attack happened.

This is complete and total BS on the part of the school authorities! Where the hell was the teacher or teacher's assistant? If this were my child when my attorneys were done I'd own myself a school if not an entire school district!!!

TerzaRima · Sep 1, 2014

Forty quatloos says the mom did it.

Cyia · Sep 1, 2014

Right now, there's no way to know who hurt that little girl, but with the attention the story is now getting, I would hope child services gets involved. If this really is a beating done by another child, then child services needs to get involved for BOTH their sakes, and the sake of every other potential target on the playground. We're only going into the second week of school. That's some serious aggression for a Kindergartener in the first week of school.

(And I'm not going to jump on Mom for asking for money, either. They're talking some serious diagnostics for her daughter. Right now, her priorities may be getting her kidlet medical attention, and then figuring out what to do legally. Any doctor examining her is going to ask questions about how she ended up in the shape she's in.)

Opty · Sep 1, 2014

milkweed said:
This is complete and total BS on the part of the school authorities! Where the hell was the teacher or teacher's assistant? If this were my child when my attorneys were done I'd own myself a school if not an entire school district!!!

Which is another reason the mother's story is suspect.

StormChord · Sep 1, 2014

Poor kid. But what the hell, school?! What kind of school leaves the kindergarten class unsupervised? The kindergarteners I know have to actively be kept from eating random objects off the ground!

blacbird · Sep 1, 2014

benbradley said:
No doubt there will be a lawsuit, and a judge or jury will decide for the school whether it's at fault.

Maybe. But litigation is by no means cheap, and unless some attorney is willing to take this on pro bono or on contingency of a settlement, it simply might not happen. One of the glories of the American legal system.

caw

Karen Junker · Sep 1, 2014

I looked up a personal injury attorney in the city where this happened and they work on contingency (but you may have to pay for some costs up front, if they don't arrange to pay them for you and get reimbursed from any settlement).

http://www.cchmlawyers.com/practice.../how-much-does-a-personal-injury-lawyer-cost/

blacbird · Sep 1, 2014

Karen Junker said:
I looked up a personal injury attorney in the city where this happened and they work on contingency (but you may have to pay for some costs up front, if they don't arrange to pay them for you and get reimbursed from any settlement).

"Some costs up front" may easily mount to many tens of thousands of dollars.

caw

Karen Junker · Sep 1, 2014

Noted, blacbird -- but the fundraiser doesn't mention seeking legal fees, right? So maybe she's got that all worked out already and really is just concerned with medical stuff -- because I'm not sure how providers work billing for an injury that may not have any related police report, etc.

blacbird · Sep 1, 2014

Karen Junker said:
not sure how providers work billing for an injury that may not have any related police report, etc.

Note to Karen: They work it for the maximum return they can get, no matter how is stuck paying for it. It's the American way.

caw

Devil Ledbetter · Sep 2, 2014

All I have to add is that I hate the spineless approach schools take to these incidents with "If a teacher didn't see it, it didn't happen. We can't possibly know for sure who did it or what happened, so we can't do anything about it."

Unless not a single other person saw it, including the victim, the school knows damned well who did this. Really what "a teacher didn't see it" translates to is "We believe all of our students are liars, and can only respond to an attack if it was witnessed by a teacher."

ETA: as far as the school having cameras on everything so they can "know" what happened, just, no. What needs to change is they need to start treating their students as credible human beings. It's one thing if you have a kid who's prone to lying, quite another if you've got one or more credible kids reporting what happened. The whole angle of "A teacher needed to see it! It must be on film to have happened" is complete garbage, IMO.

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