Family demands answers after disabled DeSoto ISD student injured at school
The family of a disabled 14-year-old DeSoto ISD student is demanding answers after she was badly injured at school.
"I was completely shocked," Kyiara Brown said. "She can't communicate for herself or advocate for herself, or tell us if she was afraid, or if she had anxiety going back into the school. It truly makes my heart hurt for her."
Brown said seeing photos of her nonverbal, wheelchair-bound niece is still overwhelming. She said back in September, her sister was called to DeSoto High School to pick up her daughter.
Initial explanation questioned by doctors
"She was walked into the nurse's office and there is where she found her daughter with blunt injuries," Brown said. "She's bleeding from her forehead, from her mouth. They told her that they forgot to lock the seatbelt in the wheelchair and she fell out of the wheelchair."
The family took her to the hospital.
"The doctors told her that the injuries that she sustained couldn't have happened with her just falling out of a wheelchair," Brown said.
Family says story later changed
They say they then met with the principal, and that's when the account shifted.
"Throughout that meeting we were asking what happened, asking for video, and they accidentally slipped up and told us she fell down the stairs," Brown said. "I feel like it was actually being hidden."
A few days later, the family said they were shown the video.
Video shows wheelchair rolling down stairs
"The teacher was in the front, pushing another student. She was behind being pushed and the student that was pushing her, he was also special needs. He walked away. Her wheelchair rolled down the stairs," Brown said. "It was concrete stairs outside of the school."
The family stressed the incident never should have happened and that she should have had both a teacher and an assistant with her.
"The assistant had a doctor's appointment," Brown said.
District cites communication and policy
DeSoto ISD said it is aware of the incident. In a statement, a spokesperson said:
"Since the time of the incident, the district has maintained direct and ongoing communication with the family and has taken appropriate action in accordance with district policy and state law."
Family calls for staffing and training
"I think the school district needs adequate staffing," Brown said. "They need proper training, and they also need consistent training."
The family said the student deserves that.