Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Fight at Christiansburg High School results in charges
A Christiansburg High School student suffered four broken bones in his face.
The student was charged after a fight Aug. 31, said Capt. Dalton Reid of the Christiansburg Police Department. The student's name is not being released because of his age.
Calls to the school's administration were referred to interim Superintendent Walt Shannon, who said he could not comment on the case because it involved specific students.
School resource officer Donnie Cromer was called to the high school's office about 12:50 p.m. after the fight took place in a school common area, Reid said.
All cases involving assault and battery are handed off to law enforcement, according to the Montgomery County School Board's code of conduct policy. Students found at fault in fights can receive an out-of-school suspension as one of 16 punishment options, but it's up to school administrators to decide which punishment is levied, according to the policy.
Police would provide little detail about the incident. But the victim's mother, Safina Burgess, said her son, Auston, was repeatedly hit at his locker, which resulted in four fractured bones -- three in his eye socket and one in the nose.
She said she and her husband question the school's response to the incident. They say the student charged with assault and battery also received a 10-day out-of-school suspension and has returned to school. The school board does not release information about student disciplinary cases.
"It's supposed to be zero tolerance and that's not zero tolerance," Safina Burgess said.
She said she's also still trying to figure out why no one at the school contacted her after the fight.
Shannon said parents are supposed to be contacted in cases of any injury. He would not say whether they were in this case.
The school's nurse examined her son in the SRO's office and said he was fine, Burgess said.
But when she took him to the family doctor for a checkup shortly before 3 p.m., she said her son started vomiting and fell unconscious. The boy was hospitalized in Montgomery Regional Hospital in Christiansburg for a day and a half and then had surgery Sept. 14 to put a titanium plate in his eye socket.
Burgess said she doesn't know whether her son will need further surgery.
